Following a long-running run on the iconic Vegas strip, the performers from the revue Jubilee! gave one last choreographed kick in 2016. The show, renowned for its intricate costumes crafted by style icon Bob Mackie, ended its run due to falling audience numbers and unimpressed critics who labeled it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Currently, roughly eight years later, the showgirl, or at least the showgirl style, is experiencing a revival.
The King of Sequins
Referred to as the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made dramatic stage sparkle his defining aesthetic, clothing everyone from screen legends to Madonna. Earlier this month, a “barely-there” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, seven times its initial estimate, while a shimmering tasseled bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more enticing for the emerging artists who is desiring something other than what they were accustomed to”, he explained to a newspaper. “Contemporary performers are embracing a glamorous, more theatrical, show-stopping, grand statement.”
The Mainstream Resurgence
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the centre of popular culture in 2025 thanks to a chart-topping superstar. In the past few months, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s vintage 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 named The Life of a Showgirl.
She has company. This year, glamorous nods have been incorporated by pop stars including Miley Cyrus as they danced across world tours in sparkles, revealing designs and ostrich feathers, highlighted against theatrical sets. Her fashion curator her creative director told a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the 50s, the backup dancers waved giant plumed accessories.
Drawing from History
Lipa, Carpenter and other successful musicians also reference historical entertainment forms, including vaudeville and chorus line references. The results are poles apart from the late-century pop style of crop tops and utilitarian trousers, and street-style dance moves that were popular earlier.
But not everyone are on board with this glamour resurgence. Nancy Hardy, a ex- Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the early 2000s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “treated as an broad label covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even Taylor Swift.”
A Highly Sought-After Classic Look
For younger and millennial stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a famous actress gave a nod to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actor wore a see-through embellished dress created by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, a singer 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, the singer wore a trio of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among collectors.
“The showgirl aesthetic evoke fond memories for a historical elegance,” says an archivist, head of special collections at the an academic institution, who researches the story of showgirls. “Currently it is considered a sort of ‘safe’ allure because it has been modified. It has got all the glamour, the rhinestones and the sparkle but without the nudity.”
More Than Simply Fashion: An Symbol of Las Vegas
The expert says this figure are integral to the identity of Las Vegas. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was surrounded by two showgirls. While Las Vegas does not host any showgirl-based productions, Chung says they are still employed as an logo of the city, appearing at corporate events and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a enduring figure of Las Vegas glamour,” she says.
The Allure of Transformation
Nancy Hardy says the complete change of a showgirl is part of the allure. This is a notion Taylor Swift hints at in a latest documentary series that shows the behind-the-scenes action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting practice sessions, gym sessions and countless performances across 21 countries, each running for 3.5 hours.
She describes her own nights in the spotlight as “comparable to running a marathon in heels every night”. Her feathered headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the stairs to the platform from the green rooms three floors below in the basement. I had to start early for my cue so I could recover before I performed. You’re perspiring the whole time but crafting this image that it’s easy and stunning and dreamlike.”
Maybe this is where the appeal of the showgirl really resides. In the busyness of 2025 there is a desire for escapism. Who better to emulate than showgirls, who have always represented dreams, idealism and a universe where nobody misses a mark.
