After a long-running stint on the Las Vegas strip, the performers from the revue Jubilee! took a final perfectly timed kick in 2016. The show, known for its elaborate costumes designed by style icon Bob Mackie, came to an end due to falling audience numbers and disappointed reviewers who labeled it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Now, roughly eight years later, the showgirl, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is making a comeback.
A Sultan of Glitz
Dubbed the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made theatrical showgirl glitz his signature style, dressing everyone from Hollywood icons to music superstars. In a recent auction, a “barely-there” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, far exceeding its initial estimate, while a shimmering tasseled bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more appealing for the emerging artists who is looking for something other than what they grew up with”, he explained to a newspaper. “Contemporary performers are pushing toward a theatrical, more dramatic, attention-grabbing, grand statement.”
A Mainstream Resurgence
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the epicenter of popular culture in 2025 thanks to Taylor Swift. In the past few months, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The crystal-covered bra and thong, feathered armbands and shimmering headpiece were perfect for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
She isn't alone. This year, showgirl references have been adopted by pop stars including Dua Lipa as they danced across world tours in sequins, strategic openings and feathers, spotlighted against camp 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 1950s, Lipa’s dancers waved giant plumed accessories.
Pulling from History
These artists and other chart toppers also reference 19th-century performances, including vaudeville and ensemble references. The final look are worlds away from the 1990s era teen pop of crop tops and cargo pants, and urban dance moves that were popular earlier.
But not everyone are enthusiastic with this showgirl revival. An ex-showgirl, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the 00s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word term is being “used as an umbrella term encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently today's icons.”
The Highly Sought-After Classic Look
For younger and millennial stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become incredibly sought-after. In 2024, Zendaya gave a nod to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the star wore a translucent beaded dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, a singer paid an private amount to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn at an awards show to perform at the Grammys. In September, Sabrina Carpenter wore a series of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among vintage enthusiasts.
“Showgirls inspire nostalgia for a historical elegance,” says Su Kim Chung, an expert at the a Las Vegas university, who documents the history of showgirls. “Currently it is seen as a sort of ‘safe’ allure because it has been adapted. It has got all the elegance, the crystals and the sparkle but without the bare skin.”
More Than Simply Fashion: An Icon of Vegas
Chung says this figure are central to the iconography of Sin City. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was accompanied by two showgirls. While Las Vegas currently lacks any traditional showgirl productions, the historian says they are still employed as an logo of the city, showing up at corporate events and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a enduring symbol of Vegas glitz and glamour,” the expert says.
An Allure of Escape
The former showgirl says the complete change of a showgirl is part of the appeal. This idea the singer references in a new documentary series that shows the off-camera action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting practice sessions, training and countless performances across 21 countries, each going on for 3.5 hours.
Hardy explains her own stage routines as “comparable to extreme physical exertion in high heels every night”. Her headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the steps to the stage from the dressing rooms three floors below in the lower level. I had to head up ahead of time for my entrance so I could rest before I made my entrance. You’re perspiring the whole time but crafting this illusion that it’s easy and stunning and ethereal.”
Perhaps this is where the fascination of the showgirl fantasy really is found. In the complexity of 2025 there is a desire for fantasy. Who better to emulate than such icons, who have always embodied fantasy, perfection and a world where no one falters.
