Following a three-decade run on the iconic Vegas strip, the showgirls from the revue Jubilee! executed their last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The production, renowned for its elaborate costumes created by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, came to an end due to declining audience numbers and critical critics who called it a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Now, almost a decade later, the showgirl persona, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is making a comeback.
The Sultan of Sequins
Known as the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made dramatic stage sparkle his signature style, clothing everyone from screen legends to pop royalty. Recently, a “see-through” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, far exceeding its initial estimate, while a silver and gold tasseled bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more appealing for the new generation of stars who is looking for something other than what they grew up with”, he stated in an interview with a newspaper. “Contemporary performers are embracing a show-stopping, more theatrical, attention-grabbing, entrance-making statement.”
The Pop Culture Comeback
It’s a look that glided all the way to the heart of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 propelled by Taylor Swift. Earlier this year, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The crystal-covered bra and thong, plumed armbands and glittering headpiece were ideal for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer is part of a trend. This year, glamorous nods have been adopted by pop stars including Sabrina Carpenter as they whizzed across world tours in sparkles, strategic openings and feathers, spotlighted against theatrical sets. A top stylist a fashion expert told a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the mid-century, her performers fluttered giant feathered fans.
Pulling from Tradition
Lipa, Carpenter and other successful musicians also take inspiration from classic entertainment forms, including burlesque and dance line references. The results are poles apart from the late-century Britney Spears era of revealing tops and utilitarian trousers, and urban dance moves that came before them.
But some critics are on board with this showgirl renaissance. Nancy Hardy, a ex- Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the early 2000s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “used as an umbrella term encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently modern pop stars.”
The Coveted Vintage Look
For millennial and modern stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, Zendaya honored to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actor wore a semi-sheer beaded dress made by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, another pop star paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn earlier in the year to perform at the Grammys. In September, Sabrina Carpenter wore a series of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among collectors.
“This style evoke a sense of longing for a historical elegance,” says a historian, head of special collections at the a Las Vegas university, who studies the legacy of showgirls. “Today it is considered a sort of ‘acceptable’ allure because it has been modified. It has got all the elegance, the sparkles and the sparkle but without the bare skin.”
More Than Simply Style: An Icon of Vegas
Chung says showgirls are key to the identity of Las Vegas. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was accompanied by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas does not host any showgirl-based productions, Jung says they are still employed as an symbol of the city, showing up at corporate events and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a enduring figure of Las Vegas glitz and glamour,” she says.
The Allure of Transformation
The former showgirl says the transformative effect of a showgirl persona is part of the allure. It’s something Swift references in a latest behind-the-scenes film that documents the off-camera action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling preparations, gym sessions and countless concerts across multiple nations, each lasting 3.5 hours.
She explains her own stage routines as “similar to extreme physical exertion in heels every night”. Her feathered headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the staircase to the performance area from the green rooms three floors below in the lower level. I had to head up ahead of time for my entrance so I could recover before I went on stage. You are perspiring the whole time but maintaining this image that it’s effortless and gorgeous and magical.”
Maybe this is where the appeal of the showgirl fantasy really resides. In the chaos of 2025 there is a longing for escapism. Is there anyone better to look to than such icons, who have always represented make-believe, idealism and a world where nobody makes a mistake.
