Following a 31-year run on the Las Vegas strip, the showgirls from the production Jubilee! gave one last choreographed kick in 2016. The extravaganza, known for its elaborate costumes designed by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, ended its run due to falling audience numbers and disappointed critics who labeled it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Today, roughly eight years later, showgirls, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is making a comeback.
A Master of Glitz
Known as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made over-the-top stage sparkle his trademark look, clothing everyone from Hollywood icons to pop royalty. Earlier this month, a “barely-there” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, far exceeding its estimated price, while a shimmering fringed bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more appealing for the younger performer who is seeking something other than what they knew from childhood”, he stated in an interview with a media outlet. “New stars are striving for a theatrical, more dramatic, attention-grabbing, entrance-making statement.”
A Musical Comeback
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the centre of popular culture in 2025 largely due to a chart-topping superstar. Recently, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The bedazzled bra and thong, plumed armbands and glittering headpiece were tailor-made for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer isn't alone. This year, showgirl inspirations have been adopted by music artists including Sabrina Carpenter as they zoomed across arena stages in glitter, cut-outs and feathers, highlighted against camp sets. Her fashion curator a fashion expert explained to a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the 50s, Lipa’s dancers fluttered giant plumed accessories.
Pulling from Tradition
Lipa, Carpenter and other hitmakers also take inspiration from classic entertainment forms, including vaudeville and ensemble references. The outcome are poles apart from the 1990s era pop style of crop tops and utilitarian trousers, and street-style dance moves that preceded this trend.
But not everyone are on board with this showgirl renaissance. A former performer, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the 2000s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “used as an broad label encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly Taylor Swift.”
The Highly Sought-After Retro Look
For millennial and young adult stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become incredibly sought-after. In 2024, Zendaya honored to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the actor wore a semi-sheer embellished dress created by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, Miley Cyrus paid an private amount to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn at an awards show 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 collectors.
“This style inspire fond memories for a historical elegance,” says a historian, head of special collections at the a Las Vegas university, who researches the legacy of showgirls. “Currently it is considered a sort of ‘acceptable’ sexy because it has been adapted. It has got all the elegance, the rhinestones and the sparkle but without the nudity.”
More Than Simply Fashion: An Symbol of the City
Chung says showgirls are key to the identity of Sin City. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was flanked by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas currently lacks any traditional showgirl productions, Jung says they are still employed as an symbol of the city, being present at conventions and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a lasting icon of Vegas spectacle,” Chung says.
An Appeal of Transformation
Hardy says the complete change of a showgirl is part of the appeal. It’s something Swift alludes to in a recent behind-the-scenes film that shows the off-camera action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting preparations, gym sessions and countless concerts across 21 countries, each going on for 3.5 hours.
The performer recalls her own stage routines as “like running a marathon in stilettos every night”. Her feathered headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the staircase to the performance area from the backstage area three floors below in the basement. I had to leave early for my cue so I could recover before I made my entrance. One is sweating the whole time but maintaining this fantasy that it’s simple and stunning and dreamlike.”
Perhaps this is where the fascination of the showgirl fantasy really is found. In the busyness of 2025 there is a desire for escapism. Is there anyone better to look to than such icons, who have always represented fantasy, idealism and a universe where no one makes a mistake.
