Following a 31-year run on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the performers from the revue Jubilee! executed their last synchronised kick in 2016. The production, known for its ornate costumes created by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, came to an end due to dwindling audience numbers and disappointed commentators who called it a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Now, roughly eight years later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl style, is making a comeback.
A King of Glitz
Referred to as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made over-the-top showgirl glitz his trademark look, clothing everyone from screen legends to Madonna. Recently, a “see-through” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, well over its estimated price, while a metallic fringed bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie created 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 stated in an interview with a newspaper. “Today's artists are striving for a glamorous, more dramatic, breathtaking, grand statement.”
The Mainstream Revival
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the heart of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 propelled by a global pop icon. Earlier this year, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The bedazzled bra and thong, plumed armbands and sparkly headpiece were ideal for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
She has company. This year, showgirl references have been incorporated by singers including Sabrina Carpenter as they danced across arena stages in sparkles, strategic openings and plumes, illuminated against overstated sets. Her fashion curator her creative director mentioned in an interview with a style publication he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the mid-century, her performers waved giant feathered fans.
Drawing from Tradition
These artists and other successful musicians also draw on historical entertainment forms, including burlesque and ensemble references. The final look are worlds away from the late-century pop style of short shirts and baggy pants, and street-style dance moves that came before them.
But some critics are convinced with this glamour resurgence. A former performer, a former Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “treated as an broad label including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even Taylor Swift.”
The Highly Sought-After Retro Look
For gen Z and young adult stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a style icon honored to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actress wore a semi-sheer sequined dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, 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, the singer wore a collection of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among collectors.
“This style inspire a sense of longing for a past glamour,” says Su Kim Chung, an expert at the an academic institution, who researches the history of showgirls. “Currently it is considered a sort of ‘toned-down’ allure because it has been modified. It has got all the elegance, the sparkles and the sparkle but without the exposure.”
A Than Just Style: An Icon of Vegas
Chung says showgirls are central to the iconography of Sin City. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was flanked by two showgirls. While Las Vegas currently lacks any traditional showgirl productions, the historian says they are still employed as an emblem of the city, showing up at conventions and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a enduring icon of Las Vegas glamour,” the expert says.
An Appeal of Illusion
The former showgirl says the magical transformation of a showgirl is part of the allure. This idea Swift references in a latest documentary series that captures the backstage action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting rehearsals, gym sessions and countless shows across multiple nations, each lasting 3.5 hours.
She explains her own stage routines as “similar to completing an endurance race in stilettos every night”. Her feathered headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the steps to the performance area from the dressing rooms three floors below in the lower level. I had to start early for my cue so I could recover before I made my entrance. You are working hard the whole time but creating this image that it’s easy and gorgeous and dreamlike.”
It could be this is where the appeal of the showgirl fantasy really is found. In the chaos of 2025 there is a longing for a break from reality. What better figure to look to than showgirls, who have always represented fantasy, perfection and a world where no one misses a mark.
