After a 31-year tenure on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the dancers from the revue Jubilee! gave one last synchronised kick in 2016. The show, famous for its ornate costumes created by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, came to an end due to falling audience numbers and disappointed reviewers who labeled it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Today, nearly ten years later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl style, is back.
A King of Sparkle
Referred to as the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made over-the-top showgirl glitz his defining aesthetic, clothing everyone from Hollywood icons to music superstars. Earlier this month, a “see-through” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, well over its projected value, while a silver and gold fringed bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more appealing for the younger performer who is looking for something other than what they knew from childhood”, he explained to a newspaper. “New stars are striving for a theatrical, more dramatic, breathtaking, entrance-making statement.”
The Musical Revival
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the epicenter of popular culture in 2025 thanks to Taylor Swift. Earlier this year, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The bedazzled bra and thong, plumed armbands and shimmering headpiece were ideal for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
She is part of a trend. This year, showgirl inspirations have been embraced by pop stars including Miley Cyrus as they zoomed across world tours in glitter, revealing designs and plumes, spotlighted against theatrical sets. Her fashion curator a fashion expert explained to a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the 1950s, the backup dancers wafted giant ostrich feather fans.
Drawing from History
Lipa, Carpenter and other hitmakers also reference 19th-century performances, including vaudeville and chorus line references. The results are poles apart from the late-century pop style of short shirts and utilitarian trousers, and street-style dance moves that came before them.
But certain observers are convinced with this showgirl renaissance. A former performer, a ex- Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the early 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “employed as an broad label including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly modern pop stars.”
The Coveted Classic Style
For gen Z and millennial stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a style icon paid tribute to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the actor wore a semi-sheer beaded dress made by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, a singer paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn earlier in the year to perform at the Grammys. In September, Sabrina Carpenter wore a series of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a favorite among fashion collectors.
“The showgirl aesthetic inspire nostalgia for a bygone era of glitz,” says Su Kim Chung, a curator at the an academic institution, who researches the legacy of showgirls. “Today it is viewed as a sort of ‘safe’ sexy because it has been updated. It has got all the elegance, the crystals and the sparkle but without the exposure.”
A Than Simply Fashion: An Icon of Vegas
She says showgirls are key to the identity of Las Vegas. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was surrounded by two showgirls. While Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-based productions, Chung says they are still employed as an emblem of the city, appearing at gatherings and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a enduring figure of Vegas glamour,” the expert says.
The Appeal of Escape
Nancy Hardy says the magical transformation of a showgirl is part of the appeal. This idea the singer references in a latest documentary series that captures the off-camera action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting practice sessions, gym sessions and numerous performances across dozens of cities, each running for 3.5 hours.
Hardy explains her own showgirl performances as “like extreme physical exertion in stilettos every night”. Her feathered headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the stairs to the platform from the dressing rooms three floors below in the basement. I had to leave early for my entrance so I could rest before I performed. One is working hard the whole time but crafting this illusion that it’s easy and stunning and ethereal.”
Maybe this is where the appeal of the showgirl really is found. In the chaos of 2025 there is a desire for a break from reality. What better figure to turn to than these performers, who have always personified fantasy, perfection and a world where no one makes a mistake.
