After a three-decade stint on the iconic Vegas strip, the performers from the production Jubilee! gave one last choreographed kick in 2016. The extravaganza, known for its elaborate costumes created by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, came to an end due to declining audience numbers and unimpressed critics who described it as a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Currently, roughly eight years later, the showgirl persona, or at least the showgirl style, is back.
The Master of Sparkle
Known as the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made over-the-top showgirl glitz his trademark look, dressing everyone from screen legends to Madonna. Earlier this month, a “naked” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, seven times its initial estimate, while a silver and gold fringed bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more enticing for the new generation of stars who is desiring something other than what they grew up with”, he stated in an interview with a publication. “Today's artists are embracing a theatrical, more theatrical, show-stopping, grand statement.”
The Pop Culture Comeback
It’s a look that glided all the way to the centre of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 thanks to Taylor Swift. In the past few months, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The bedazzled bra and thong, feathered armbands and glittering headpiece were ideal for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
She isn't alone. This year, showgirl inspirations have been incorporated by music artists including Sabrina Carpenter as they zoomed across concert platforms in sequins, strategic openings and feathers, spotlighted against overstated sets. Lipa’s stylist a fashion expert mentioned in an interview with Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the mid-century, the backup dancers fluttered giant plumed accessories.
Drawing from Tradition
These artists and other chart toppers also reference classic entertainment forms, including burlesque and dance line references. The outcome are poles apart from the late-century Britney Spears era of short shirts and utilitarian trousers, and urban dance moves that were popular earlier.
But some critics are enthusiastic with this glamour resurgence. Nancy Hardy, a former Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the 00s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “employed as an umbrella term including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently modern pop stars.”
A Coveted Retro Look
For younger and millennial stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become incredibly sought-after. In 2024, a famous actress honored to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the star wore a see-through embellished dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, another pop star paid an significant price to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn at an awards show to perform at the Grammys. In September, Sabrina Carpenter wore a trio of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a favorite among collectors.
“Showgirls inspire a sense of longing for a past glamour,” says a historian, a curator at the an academic institution, who documents the history of showgirls. “Currently it is considered a sort of ‘acceptable’ allure because it has been adapted. It has got all the elegance, the rhinestones and the glitter but without the bare skin.”
More Than Simply Style: An Symbol of the City
She says showgirls are central to the identity of Las Vegas. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was flanked by two showgirls. While Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-based productions, the historian says they are still used as an logo of the city, being present at conventions and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a lasting icon of Vegas glitz and glamour,” Chung says.
An Allure of Escape
Hardy says the magical transformation of a showgirl is part of the appeal. This is a notion Swift alludes to in a recent docuseries that documents the backstage action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting rehearsals, training and numerous performances across multiple nations, each going on for 3.5 hours.
She explains her own stage routines as “like completing an endurance race in stilettos every night”. Her feathered headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the steps to the stage from the dressing rooms three floors below in the basement. I had to head up ahead of time for my entrance so I could recover before I went on stage. You’re perspiring the whole time but crafting this illusion that it’s easy and stunning and dreamlike.”
Perhaps this is where the appeal of the showgirl really lies. In the complexity of 2025 there is a craving for a break from reality. Who better to emulate than such icons, who have always represented fantasy, idealism and a world where no one falters.
