Following a 31-year stint on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the showgirls from the revue Jubilee! executed their last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The show, renowned for its elaborate costumes crafted by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to falling audience numbers and critical reviewers who labeled it a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Currently, roughly eight years later, the showgirl persona, or at least the showgirl style, is experiencing a revival.
The Master of Sparkle
Known as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made dramatic stage sparkle his defining aesthetic, clothing everyone from screen legends to Madonna. In a recent auction, a “see-through” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, well over its projected value, while a metallic fringed bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more enticing for the younger performer who is looking for something other than what they grew up with”, he explained to a publication. “New stars are striving for a theatrical, more dramatic, breathtaking, grand statement.”
The Mainstream Resurgence
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the epicenter of popular culture in 2025 propelled by a global pop icon. Earlier this year, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The crystal-covered bra and thong, plumed armbands and sparkly headpiece were tailor-made for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift has company. This year, glamorous nods have been adopted by music artists including Miley Cyrus as they danced across world tours in sequins, cut-outs and feathers, illuminated against theatrical sets. Lipa’s stylist a fashion expert told Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the 50s, Lipa’s dancers waved giant ostrich feather fans.
Drawing from History
These artists and other chart toppers also reference classic entertainment forms, including vaudeville and ensemble references. The final look are worlds away from the late-century Britney Spears era of revealing tops and cargo pants, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that preceded this trend.
But not everyone are on board with this showgirl revival. Nancy Hardy, a former Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word term is being “employed as an catch-all phrase including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly today's icons.”
A Coveted Retro Style
For gen Z and young adult stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a famous actress honored to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the star wore a semi-sheer embellished dress made by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, another pop star paid an private amount to buy the Mackie fringed 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 popular item among fashion collectors.
“Showgirls bring about a sense of longing for a bygone era of glitz,” says an archivist, an expert at the an academic institution, who studies the legacy of showgirls. “Currently it is viewed as a sort of ‘toned-down’ appeal because it has been modified. It has got all the elegance, the sparkles and the shine but without the exposure.”
A Than Just Style: An Icon of Vegas
The expert says this figure are central to the imagery of Las Vegas. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was surrounded by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas does not host any traditional showgirl productions, Chung says they are still used as an emblem of the city, appearing at corporate events and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a enduring symbol of Vegas spectacle,” she says.
An Allure of Escape
The former showgirl says the complete change of a showgirl is part of the attraction. This is a notion Taylor Swift alludes to in a recent docuseries that shows the off-camera action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting rehearsals, training and numerous shows across multiple nations, each going on for 3.5 hours.
She recalls her own nights in the spotlight as “similar 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 green rooms three floors below in the lower level. I had to head up ahead of time for my moment so I could rest before I performed. One is working hard the whole time but crafting this image that it’s effortless and gorgeous and ethereal.”
It could be this is where the fascination of the showgirl fantasy really is found. In the busyness of 2025 there is a longing for fantasy. What better figure to emulate than such icons, who have always embodied dreams, perfection and a universe where no one falters.
