After a long-running stint on the Las Vegas strip, the dancers from the production Jubilee! executed their last synchronised kick in 2016. The extravaganza, famous for its ornate costumes crafted by style icon Bob Mackie, ended its run due to falling audience numbers and disappointed commentators who called it a spectacle “trapped in time”.
Today, roughly eight years later, the showgirl, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is experiencing a revival.
A Sultan of Sparkle
Referred to as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made theatrical showgirl glitz his trademark look, clothing everyone from Hollywood icons to music superstars. Earlier this month, a “see-through” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, well over its estimated price, while a metallic beaded bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more appealing for the emerging artists who is looking for something other than what they knew from childhood”, he stated in an interview with a media outlet. “Today's artists are striving for a theatrical, more spectacular, show-stopping, grand statement.”
The Musical Revival
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the heart of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 largely due to a chart-topping superstar. In the past few months, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The bedazzled bra and thong, plumed armbands and sparkly headpiece were ideal for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift has company. This year, showgirl inspirations have been adopted by singers including Sabrina Carpenter as they danced across world tours in sparkles, strategic openings and ostrich feathers, illuminated against overstated sets. Lipa’s stylist Lorenzo Posocco mentioned in an interview with Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the 50s, her performers fluttered giant plumed accessories.
Drawing from Tradition
These artists and other hitmakers also draw on classic entertainment forms, including classic theater and dance line references. The results are worlds away from the 90s teen pop of crop tops and baggy pants, and street-style dance moves that were popular earlier.
But certain observers are convinced with this glamour resurgence. An ex-showgirl, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the 00s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “treated as an umbrella term covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently modern pop stars.”
The Coveted Retro Look
For gen Z and young adult stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a style icon gave a nod to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actor wore a translucent embellished dress created by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, another pop star paid an private amount to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn earlier in the year to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a series of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among fashion collectors.
“Showgirls inspire a sense of longing for a bygone era of glitz,” says an archivist, head of special collections at the University of Nevada, who researches the legacy of showgirls. “Today it is considered a sort of ‘toned-down’ allure because it has been modified. It has got all the elegance, the sparkles and the shine but without the bare skin.”
A Than Simply Fashion: An Symbol of the City
Chung says this figure are central to the imagery of Las Vegas. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was surrounded by two showgirls. While Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-centric productions, Chung says they are still used as an logo of the city, appearing at conventions and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a enduring symbol of Vegas glitz and glamour,” she says.
An Allure of Illusion
Nancy Hardy says the transformative effect of a showgirl is part of the attraction. This idea Taylor Swift alludes to in a latest behind-the-scenes film that shows the off-camera action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting practice sessions, training and 149 performances across multiple nations, each going on for 3.5 hours.
She explains her own showgirl performances as “similar to running a marathon in stilettos every night”. Her feathered headdress was 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the steps to the stage from the backstage area three floors below in the underground. I had to leave early for my cue so I could recover before I went on stage. You’re sweating the whole time but maintaining this image that it’s simple and beautiful and dreamlike.”
It could be this is where the appeal of the showgirl fantasy really resides. In the complexity of 2025 there is a craving for a break from reality. What better figure to look to than these performers, who have always embodied fantasy, flawlessness and a world where no one falters.
