Following a three-decade run on the Las Vegas strip, the performers from the revue Jubilee! executed their last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The production, renowned for its intricate costumes designed by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to dwindling audience numbers and disappointed commentators who labeled it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Today, almost a decade later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl style, is back.
The King of Sparkle
Referred to as the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glitz his signature style, outfitting everyone from Hollywood icons to music superstars. In a recent auction, a “barely-there” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, well over its projected value, while a silver and gold tasseled bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more attractive for the younger performer who is desiring something other than what they were accustomed to”, he stated in an interview with a newspaper. “Contemporary performers are pushing toward a show-stopping, more dramatic, show-stopping, entrance-making statement.”
A Musical Resurgence
It’s a look that glided all the way to the epicenter of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 thanks to a global pop icon. In the past few months, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, feathered armbands and sparkly headpiece were tailor-made for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift is part of a trend. This year, showgirl references have been incorporated by music artists including Miley Cyrus as they whizzed across concert platforms in sparkles, revealing designs and feathers, illuminated against overstated sets. Her fashion curator Lorenzo Posocco explained to Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the 50s, Lipa’s dancers waved giant ostrich feather fans.
Drawing from the Past
Lipa, Carpenter and other chart toppers also reference classic entertainment forms, including classic theater and chorus line references. The final look are worlds away from the 90s Britney Spears era of crop tops and utilitarian trousers, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that were popular earlier.
But some critics are on board with this showgirl revival. A former performer, a former Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the early 2000s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “employed as an broad label including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently modern pop stars.”
The Coveted Vintage Look
For younger and millennial stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, Zendaya gave a nod to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actress wore a see-through embellished dress created by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, another pop star paid an significant price to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn previously to perform at the Grammys. In September, the singer wore a trio of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among collectors.
“This style inspire nostalgia for a past glamour,” says an archivist, a curator at the a Las Vegas university, who documents the history of showgirls. “Now it is viewed as a sort of ‘toned-down’ allure because it has been adapted. It has got all the glamour, the rhinestones and the glitter but without the bare skin.”
A Than Just Fashion: An Icon of Las Vegas
She says the showgirl image are integral to the iconography of Vegas. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was accompanied by two showgirls. While Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-centric productions, the historian says they are still employed as an logo of the city, appearing at gatherings and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a remaining symbol of Las Vegas glitz and glamour,” Chung says.
The Allure of Escape
Nancy Hardy says the complete change of a showgirl is part of the attraction. This is a notion Swift references in a new docuseries that shows the backstage action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting practice sessions, gym sessions and numerous concerts across 21 countries, each running for 3.5 hours.
The performer recalls her own nights in the spotlight as “similar to completing an endurance race in heels every night”. Her headpiece was 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the stairs to the stage from the backstage area three floors below in the lower level. I had to start early for my moment so I could catch my breath before I went on stage. You are perspiring the whole time but crafting this illusion that it’s effortless and beautiful and dreamlike.”
Maybe this is where the fascination of the showgirl fantasy really is found. In the busyness of 2025 there is a longing for escapism. Who better to look to than showgirls, who have always represented dreams, perfection and a realm where nobody falters.
