After a long-running tenure on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the showgirls from the spectacle Jubilee! took a final perfectly timed kick in 2016. The show, known for its elaborate costumes crafted by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, ended its run due to dwindling audience numbers and unimpressed commentators who called it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Currently, almost a decade later, showgirls, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is back.
The Master of Glitz
Known as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made over-the-top showgirl glamour his defining aesthetic, dressing everyone from screen legends to Madonna. In a recent auction, a “naked” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, seven times its initial estimate, while a metallic beaded bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more appealing for the younger performer who is seeking something other than what they knew from childhood”, he told a newspaper. “Today's artists are striving for a show-stopping, more theatrical, attention-grabbing, grand statement.”
A Mainstream Resurgence
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the centre of mainstream fashion in 2025 thanks to Taylor Swift. Earlier this year, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The crystal-covered bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and shimmering headpiece were perfect for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift is part of a trend. This year, showgirl references have been incorporated by singers including Dua Lipa as they zoomed across world tours in glitter, revealing designs and ostrich feathers, illuminated against camp sets. Her fashion curator her creative director told Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the mid-century, Lipa’s dancers wafted giant plumed accessories.
Drawing from the Past
Lipa, Carpenter and other hitmakers also take inspiration from 19th-century performances, including vaudeville and ensemble references. The outcome are vastly different from the 1990s era Britney Spears era of revealing tops and utilitarian trousers, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that came before them.
But some critics are convinced with this showgirl revival. Nancy Hardy, a former Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the 2000s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “used as an umbrella term covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even modern pop stars.”
A Coveted Vintage Style
For millennial and millennial stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a style icon paid tribute to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the star wore a translucent embellished dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, a singer paid an private amount to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn earlier in the year to perform at the Grammys. In September, Sabrina Carpenter wore a trio of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among vintage enthusiasts.
“This style bring about fond memories for a past glamour,” says an archivist, head of special collections at the an academic institution, who researches the history of showgirls. “Currently it is viewed as a sort of ‘toned-down’ sexy because it has been adapted. It has got all the glamour, the crystals and the sparkle but without the exposure.”
A Than Simply Fashion: An Symbol of Vegas
She says the showgirl image are integral to the iconography of Vegas. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was accompanied by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-based productions, Jung says they are still featured as an emblem of the city, being present at conventions and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a enduring icon of Vegas glitz and glamour,” she says.
The Allure of Escape
Nancy Hardy says the transformative effect of a showgirl persona is part of the allure. This idea the singer alludes to in a new docuseries that documents the backstage action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included intense preparations, workouts and 149 performances across dozens of cities, each lasting 3.5 hours.
The performer describes her own nights in the spotlight as “similar to extreme physical exertion in high heels every night”. Her headdress was 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the staircase to the performance area from the dressing rooms three floors below in the lower level. I had to head up ahead of time for my moment so I could recover before I went on stage. You are sweating the whole time but creating this image that it’s easy and gorgeous and magical.”
Perhaps this is where the fascination of the showgirl fantasy really resides. In the complexity of 2025 there is a desire for a break from reality. Is there anyone better to turn to than these performers, who have always represented fantasy, perfection and a realm where nobody falters.
