After a three-decade run on the iconic Vegas strip, the showgirls from the production Jubilee! gave one last choreographed kick in 2016. The show, known for its ornate costumes created by style icon 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, the showgirl persona, or at least the showgirl style, is making a comeback.
A Sultan of Glitz
Known as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made theatrical stage sparkle his defining aesthetic, dressing everyone from Hollywood icons to music superstars. In a recent auction, a “naked” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, far exceeding its projected value, while a shimmering beaded bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more enticing for the new generation of stars who is looking for something other than what they knew from childhood”, he explained to a media outlet. “Contemporary performers are striving for a show-stopping, more dramatic, breathtaking, grand statement.”
The Musical Comeback
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the heart of popular culture in 2025 largely due to a global pop icon. In the past few months, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The crystal-covered bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and shimmering headpiece were ideal for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.
She has company. This year, showgirl references have been incorporated by singers including Miley Cyrus as they danced across arena stages in sparkles, cut-outs and ostrich feathers, spotlighted against overstated sets. Lipa’s stylist her creative director mentioned in an interview with a style publication he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the 50s, the backup dancers fluttered giant feathered fans.
Drawing from the Past
Lipa, Carpenter and other chart toppers also draw on 19th-century entertainment forms, including classic theater and chorus line references. The outcome are vastly different from the late-century teen pop of crop tops and cargo pants, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that preceded this trend.
But certain observers are enthusiastic with this glamour resurgence. Nancy Hardy, a ex- Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the early 2000s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “employed as an broad label encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently Taylor Swift.”
The Coveted Retro Style
For millennial and modern stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a style icon paid tribute to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the star wore a translucent sequined dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, another pop star 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, Sabrina Carpenter wore a series of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among vintage enthusiasts.
“Showgirls inspire a sense of longing for a bygone era of glitz,” says an archivist, head of special collections at the University of Nevada, who studies the legacy of showgirls. “Now it is seen as a sort of ‘toned-down’ allure because it has been modified. It has got all the glamour, the sparkles and the glitter but without the nudity.”
More Than Simply Style: An Icon of Vegas
The expert says this figure are central to the imagery of Las Vegas. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was flanked by two showgirls. While Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-based productions, Chung says they are still used as an emblem of the city, being present at gatherings and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a remaining figure of Vegas spectacle,” she says.
An Allure of Illusion
Hardy says the transformative effect of a stage character is part of the appeal. This idea Taylor Swift alludes to in a recent documentary series that documents the off-camera action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included intense preparations, training and 149 performances across dozens of cities, each going on for 3.5 hours.
She explains her own stage routines as “like extreme physical exertion in heels every night”. Her feathered headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the steps to the platform from the green rooms three floors below in the basement. I had to start early for my cue so I could rest before I went on stage. You’re perspiring the whole time but maintaining this image that it’s effortless and gorgeous and magical.”
It could be this is where the fascination of the showgirl really lies. In the busyness of 2025 there is a craving for fantasy. Is there anyone better to emulate than such icons, who have always personified fantasy, flawlessness and a world where nobody falters.
