After a three-decade tenure on the iconic Vegas strip, the showgirls from the revue Jubilee! took a final perfectly timed kick in 2016. The show, renowned for its intricate costumes crafted by style icon Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to falling audience numbers and disappointed critics who called it a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Now, roughly eight years later, showgirls, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is making a comeback.
The Master of Glitz
Referred to as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made over-the-top showgirl glamour his signature style, outfitting everyone from screen legends to pop royalty. Recently, a “naked” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, well over its estimated price, while a metallic fringed bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more attractive for the emerging artists who is desiring something other than what they knew from childhood”, he told a media outlet. “Today's artists are striving for a show-stopping, more spectacular, attention-grabbing, memorable statement.”
The Pop Culture Comeback
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the epicenter of popular culture in 2025 propelled by a global pop icon. Recently, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The bedazzled bra and thong, plumed armbands and shimmering headpiece were ideal for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift has company. This year, showgirl inspirations have been embraced by singers including Sabrina Carpenter as they zoomed across concert platforms in sparkles, strategic openings and feathers, spotlighted against camp sets. Her fashion curator Lorenzo Posocco explained to a style publication he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the 50s, Lipa’s dancers fluttered giant ostrich feather fans.
Pulling from the Past
These artists and other hitmakers also take inspiration from 19th-century performances, including classic theater and chorus line references. The results are poles apart from the 90s teen pop of revealing tops and utilitarian trousers, and street-style dance moves that preceded this trend.
But not everyone are on board with this glamour resurgence. Nancy Hardy, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the early 2000s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “treated as an broad label covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even Taylor Swift.”
A Highly Sought-After Vintage Style
For gen Z and young adult stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become incredibly sought-after. In 2024, a famous actress honored to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actress wore a translucent sequined dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, Miley Cyrus paid an significant price to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn earlier in the year to perform at the Grammys. In September, the singer wore a series of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among vintage enthusiasts.
“This style bring about nostalgia for a bygone era of glitz,” says an archivist, a curator at the University of Nevada, who documents the story of showgirls. “Currently it is seen as a sort of ‘toned-down’ sexy because it has been adapted. It has got all the sophistication, the sparkles and the glitter but without the nudity.”
More Than Just Fashion: An Icon of Vegas
The expert says this figure are integral to the iconography of Las Vegas. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was flanked by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas does not host any traditional showgirl 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 figure of Vegas glamour,” she says.
The Appeal of Escape
Nancy Hardy says the complete change of a showgirl persona is part of the allure. This idea the singer references in a recent documentary series that shows the off-camera action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling practice sessions, gym sessions and numerous concerts across multiple nations, each running for 3.5 hours.
Hardy describes her own nights in the spotlight as “similar to running a marathon in high heels every night”. Her headpiece weighed 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the stairs to the performance area from the backstage area three floors below in the basement. I had to start early for my cue so I could catch my breath before I made my entrance. You’re working hard the whole time but creating this image that it’s effortless and beautiful and ethereal.”
It could be this is where the true allure of the showgirl fantasy really resides. In the complexity of 2025 there is a craving for a break from reality. What better figure to turn to than showgirls, who have always embodied make-believe, flawlessness and a world where no one misses a mark.