After a long-running tenure on the iconic Vegas strip, the performers from the revue Jubilee! executed their last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The extravaganza, known for its intricate costumes designed by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, ended its run due to falling audience numbers and unimpressed commentators who called it a spectacle “trapped in time”.
Currently, almost a decade later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl style, is back.
The Sultan of Glitz
Dubbed the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made over-the-top stage sparkle his signature style, dressing everyone from screen legends to music superstars. In a recent auction, a “naked” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, far exceeding its estimated price, while a shimmering tasseled bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more enticing for the emerging artists who is looking for something other than what they grew up with”, he told a publication. “Today's artists are pushing toward a theatrical, more dramatic, show-stopping, entrance-making statement.”
The Pop Culture Comeback
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the heart of popular culture in 2025 propelled by Taylor Swift. 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 crystal-covered bra and thong, plumed armbands and sparkly headpiece were tailor-made for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
She is part of a trend. This year, glamorous nods have been adopted by pop stars including Sabrina Carpenter as they whizzed across arena stages in sparkles, strategic openings and plumes, illuminated against theatrical sets. Lipa’s stylist a fashion expert explained to a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the 1950s, her performers fluttered giant ostrich feather fans.
Pulling from Tradition
Modern stars and other hitmakers also draw on historical performances, including classic theater and dance line references. The outcome are vastly different from the 1990s era Britney Spears era of crop tops and cargo pants, and street-style dance moves that came before them.
But not everyone are enthusiastic with this glamour resurgence. Nancy Hardy, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the early 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word term is being “used as an umbrella term encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly modern pop stars.”
The Highly Sought-After Retro Look
For younger and millennial stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a style icon gave a nod to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the star wore a semi-sheer sequined dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, a singer paid an significant price to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn at an awards show to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a series of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a favorite among vintage enthusiasts.
“Showgirls inspire a sense of longing for a past glamour,” says a historian, head of special collections at the an academic institution, who documents the story of showgirls. “Currently it is considered a sort of ‘toned-down’ sexy because it has been adapted. It has got all the glamour, the rhinestones and the glitter but without the exposure.”
A Than Just Fashion: An Icon of Vegas
Chung says this figure are integral to the identity of Vegas. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was surrounded by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas does not host any showgirl-centric productions, Chung says they are still featured as an logo of the city, showing up at conventions and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a enduring figure of Las Vegas spectacle,” Chung says.
An Appeal of Transformation
Nancy Hardy says the transformative effect of a showgirl is part of the appeal. It’s something the singer references in a recent documentary series that documents the backstage action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included intense preparations, workouts and 149 concerts across dozens of cities, each lasting 3.5 hours.
Hardy explains her own showgirl performances as “similar to running a marathon in stilettos every night”. Her headpiece weighed 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the steps to the platform 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 made my entrance. You are sweating the whole time but creating this illusion that it’s simple and beautiful and dreamlike.”
Maybe this is where the appeal of the showgirl really resides. In the complexity of 2025 there is a longing for fantasy. Who better to look to than showgirls, who have always personified dreams, flawlessness and a world where no one makes a mistake.
