After a 31-year run on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the showgirls from the spectacle Jubilee! took a final perfectly timed kick in 2016. The extravaganza, renowned for its elaborate costumes crafted by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, ended its run due to falling audience numbers and disappointed reviewers who labeled it a spectacle “trapped in time”.
Now, roughly eight years later, the showgirl persona, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is back.
A Master of Glitz
Dubbed the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glitz his trademark look, dressing everyone from Hollywood icons to Madonna. Earlier this month, a “see-through” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, seven times its projected value, while a metallic tasseled bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more attractive for the emerging artists who is seeking something other than what they grew up with”, he stated in an interview with a publication. “Contemporary performers are striving for a theatrical, more dramatic, show-stopping, entrance-making statement.”
A Musical Comeback
It’s a look that glided all the way to the epicenter of popular culture in 2025 largely due to Taylor Swift. In the past few months, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The bedazzled bra and thong, feathered armbands and sparkly headpiece were perfect for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift isn't alone. This year, showgirl references have been embraced by singers including Sabrina Carpenter as they whizzed across arena stages in sequins, revealing designs and plumes, illuminated against theatrical sets. Lipa’s stylist Lorenzo Posocco explained to a style publication he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the mid-century, her performers waved giant plumed accessories.
Drawing from History
Lipa, Carpenter and other hitmakers also take inspiration from 19th-century performances, including vaudeville and dance line references. The outcome are vastly different from the 1990s era pop style of short shirts and utilitarian trousers, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that preceded this trend.
But some critics are convinced with this showgirl renaissance. A former performer, a former Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the early 2000s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word term is being “employed as an umbrella term covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even today's icons.”
A Coveted Vintage Style
For millennial and young adult stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a famous actress paid tribute to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actor wore a translucent sequined dress made by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, Miley Cyrus paid an significant price to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn at an awards show to perform at the Grammys. In September, the singer wore a series of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a favorite among vintage enthusiasts.
“Showgirls evoke fond memories for a past glamour,” says Su Kim Chung, head of special collections at the a Las Vegas university, who studies the history of showgirls. “Currently it is considered a sort of ‘acceptable’ appeal because it has been updated. It has got all the sophistication, the sparkles and the glitter but without the exposure.”
A Than Simply Style: An Symbol of the City
She says the showgirl image are integral to the iconography of Sin City. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was flanked by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas does not host any showgirl-centric productions, the historian says they are still used as an emblem of the city, appearing at corporate events and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a remaining figure of Las Vegas spectacle,” Chung says.
The Allure of Transformation
Nancy Hardy says the transformative effect of a showgirl is part of the attraction. It’s something the singer alludes to in a recent docuseries that shows the backstage action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included intense rehearsals, workouts and countless performances across multiple nations, each running for 3.5 hours.
The performer recalls her own stage routines as “comparable to extreme physical exertion in stilettos every night”. Her headpiece was 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the stairs to the stage from the dressing rooms three floors below in the lower level. I had to leave early for my cue so I could catch my breath before I went on stage. One is sweating the whole time but crafting this image that it’s easy and gorgeous and dreamlike.”
Perhaps this is where the fascination of the showgirl really resides. In the complexity of 2025 there is a craving for escapism. What better figure to emulate than these performers, who have always represented dreams, idealism and a universe where nobody makes a mistake.
