Following a 31-year tenure on the Las Vegas strip, the dancers from the spectacle Jubilee! gave one last choreographed kick in 2016. The extravaganza, known for its ornate costumes designed by style icon Bob Mackie, ended its run due to falling audience numbers and unimpressed reviewers who labeled it a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Today, almost a decade later, showgirls, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is back.
The King of Sparkle
Known as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made theatrical showgirl glamour his signature style, dressing everyone from screen legends to music superstars. Earlier this month, a “barely-there” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, well over its estimated price, while a metallic fringed bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more enticing for the emerging artists who is looking for something other than what they were accustomed to”, he told a newspaper. “Contemporary performers are pushing toward a glamorous, more spectacular, breathtaking, grand statement.”
The Musical Comeback
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the heart of mainstream fashion in 2025 largely due to Taylor Swift. Recently, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The crystal-covered bra and thong, plumed armbands and glittering headpiece were perfect for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift isn't alone. This year, showgirl inspirations have been incorporated by music artists including Sabrina Carpenter as they zoomed across world tours in sequins, strategic openings and ostrich feathers, illuminated against theatrical sets. Her fashion curator her creative director told a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the 50s, her performers waved giant ostrich feather fans.
Drawing from the Past
Lipa, Carpenter and other hitmakers also take inspiration from historical entertainment forms, including classic theater and chorus line references. The outcome are poles apart from the late-century pop style of revealing tops and utilitarian trousers, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that came before them.
But certain observers are enthusiastic with this showgirl renaissance. Nancy Hardy, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the 00s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “treated as an umbrella term covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently modern pop stars.”
The Coveted Retro Look
For millennial and millennial stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a style icon honored to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the actor wore a translucent sequined dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, another pop star paid an private amount to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn at an awards show to perform at the Grammys. In September, Sabrina Carpenter wore a collection of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among vintage enthusiasts.
“This style inspire fond memories for a past glamour,” says a historian, an expert at the University of Nevada, who studies the legacy of showgirls. “Today it is considered a sort of ‘safe’ allure because it has been adapted. It has got all the sophistication, the crystals and the glitter but without the nudity.”
A Than Simply Style: An Icon of the City
Chung says this figure are integral to the iconography of Las Vegas. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was flanked by two showgirls. While Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-centric productions, Chung says they are still used as an emblem of the city, showing up at conventions and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a enduring icon of Vegas glitz and glamour,” she says.
The Allure of Escape
Nancy Hardy says the magical transformation of a showgirl persona is part of the allure. This is a notion the singer alludes to in a latest behind-the-scenes film that captures the behind-the-scenes action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling rehearsals, gym sessions and countless shows across dozens of cities, each running for 3.5 hours.
Hardy explains her own showgirl performances as “like extreme physical exertion in heels every night”. Her feathered headdress tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the stairs to the performance area from the green rooms three floors below in the lower level. I had to start early for my entrance so I could catch my breath before I performed. One is sweating the whole time but maintaining this image that it’s effortless and beautiful and magical.”
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 embodied dreams, flawlessness and a world where no one makes a mistake.
