After a long-running stint on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the showgirls from the spectacle Jubilee! took a final choreographed kick in 2016. The show, renowned for its ornate costumes crafted by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to falling audience numbers and unimpressed critics who labeled it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Currently, roughly eight years later, showgirls, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is making a comeback.
The King of Sequins
Known as the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made dramatic stage sparkle his trademark look, dressing everyone from screen legends to music superstars. Earlier this month, a “naked” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, seven times its initial estimate, while a shimmering fringed bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more appealing for the emerging artists who is looking for something other than what they knew from childhood”, he explained to a newspaper. “Contemporary performers are striving for a theatrical, more theatrical, breathtaking, entrance-making statement.”
The Musical Resurgence
It’s a look that glided all the way to the epicenter of popular culture in 2025 propelled by a chart-topping superstar. Recently, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, plumed armbands and sparkly headpiece were perfect for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer is part of a trend. This year, glamorous nods have been embraced by pop stars including Sabrina Carpenter as they zoomed across arena stages in sparkles, cut-outs and plumes, illuminated against overstated sets. Her fashion curator her creative director explained to Vogue he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the 1950s, Lipa’s dancers wafted giant ostrich feather fans.
Drawing from Tradition
These artists and other chart toppers also draw on 19th-century performances, including burlesque and ensemble references. The outcome are poles apart from the 1990s era teen pop of short shirts and utilitarian trousers, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that preceded this trend.
But not everyone are convinced with this glamour resurgence. Nancy Hardy, a former Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the 2000s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “used as an broad label including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently today's icons.”
The Highly Sought-After Vintage Style
For gen Z and young adult stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a style icon honored to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actress wore a translucent beaded dress made by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, another pop star paid an private amount to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn earlier in the year to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a trio of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among vintage enthusiasts.
“The showgirl aesthetic bring about nostalgia for a bygone era of glitz,” says Su Kim Chung, an expert at the an academic institution, who studies the history of showgirls. “Today it is seen as a sort of ‘toned-down’ sexy because it has been adapted. It has got all the elegance, the sparkles and the shine but without the bare skin.”
A Than Simply Fashion: An Symbol of Vegas
She says showgirls are integral to the imagery of Las Vegas. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was flanked by two showgirls. While Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-based productions, the historian says they are still used as an logo of the city, showing up at conventions and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a enduring icon of Vegas glamour,” Chung says.
An Allure of Illusion
The former showgirl says the complete change of a stage character is part of the allure. It’s something Swift hints at in a new documentary series that shows the behind-the-scenes action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling preparations, training and numerous performances across multiple nations, each going on for 3.5 hours.
She explains her own showgirl performances as “comparable to extreme physical exertion in high heels every night”. Her headpiece was 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the staircase to the stage from the dressing rooms three floors below in the lower level. I had to leave early for my cue so I could rest before I went on stage. One is perspiring the whole time but crafting this image that it’s easy and beautiful and magical.”
Maybe this is where the fascination of the showgirl fantasy really lies. In the chaos of 2025 there is a craving for a break from reality. What better figure to emulate than such icons, who have always personified dreams, idealism and a realm where nobody falters.
