After a three-decade stint on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the showgirls from the revue Jubilee! took a final synchronised kick in 2016. The show, known for its intricate costumes crafted by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, came to an end due to declining audience numbers and critical reviewers who called it a spectacle “trapped in time”.
Today, nearly ten years later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl style, is back.
The Master of Sparkle
Referred to as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made over-the-top stage sparkle his signature style, clothing everyone from Hollywood icons to music superstars. Earlier this month, a “barely-there” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, seven times its projected value, while a metallic fringed bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more enticing for the new generation of stars who is desiring something other than what they were accustomed to”, he told a publication. “Contemporary performers are pushing toward a show-stopping, more dramatic, attention-grabbing, entrance-making statement.”
The Pop Culture Comeback
It’s a look that glided all the way to the epicenter of popular culture in 2025 largely due to a chart-topping superstar. In the past few months, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The bedazzled bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and shimmering headpiece were ideal for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift isn't alone. This year, glamorous nods have been incorporated by singers including Miley Cyrus as they danced across concert platforms in glitter, revealing designs and plumes, highlighted against theatrical sets. Lipa’s stylist her creative director told Vogue he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the 50s, Lipa’s dancers fluttered giant plumed accessories.
Pulling from Tradition
These artists and other successful musicians also reference historical performances, including classic theater and dance line references. The outcome are vastly different from the 90s Britney Spears era of short shirts and baggy pants, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that were popular earlier.
But certain observers are enthusiastic with this glamour resurgence. Nancy Hardy, a former Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the early 2000s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “used as an broad label covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently today's icons.”
A Coveted Vintage Style
For millennial and modern stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a style icon gave a nod to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the actor wore a translucent beaded dress made by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, Miley Cyrus paid an significant price to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn at an awards show to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a collection of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among collectors.
“Showgirls evoke nostalgia for a historical elegance,” says an archivist, head of special collections at the an academic institution, who studies the history of showgirls. “Today it is viewed as a sort of ‘acceptable’ appeal because it has been updated. It has got all the glamour, the crystals and the sparkle but without the exposure.”
A Than Simply Style: An Symbol of Vegas
She says showgirls are key to the iconography of Las Vegas. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was surrounded by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-centric productions, Chung says they are still featured as an logo of the city, being present at conventions and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a enduring symbol of Las Vegas glamour,” she says.
The Appeal of Transformation
Hardy says the transformative effect of a stage character is part of the attraction. It’s something Swift references in a latest docuseries that captures the backstage action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting rehearsals, gym sessions and countless concerts across multiple nations, each going on for 3.5 hours.
She recalls her own showgirl performances as “like extreme physical exertion in heels every night”. Her headpiece weighed 34lbs. “I had to carry 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 moment so I could rest before I performed. You’re perspiring the whole time but crafting this fantasy that it’s easy and stunning and ethereal.”
It could be this is where the true allure of the showgirl really is found. In the busyness of 2025 there is a longing for escapism. Is there anyone better to turn to than showgirls, who have always embodied fantasy, idealism and a world where nobody makes a mistake.
