Following a 31-year stint on the Las Vegas strip, the performers from the revue Jubilee! executed their last choreographed kick in 2016. The production, renowned for its intricate costumes crafted by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to dwindling audience numbers and disappointed reviewers who labeled it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Currently, nearly ten years later, showgirls, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is back.
The King of Sparkle
Referred to as the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made theatrical showgirl glitz his defining aesthetic, clothing everyone from Hollywood icons to pop royalty. Recently, a “see-through” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, well over its projected value, while a silver and gold beaded bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more enticing for the younger performer who is seeking something other than what they knew from childhood”, he told a media outlet. “Today's artists are striving for a glamorous, more spectacular, attention-grabbing, grand statement.”
The Musical Comeback
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the heart of mainstream fashion in 2025 propelled by a global pop icon. Earlier this year, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The bedazzled bra and thong, feathered armbands and sparkly headpiece were tailor-made for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
She has company. This year, glamorous nods have been adopted by music artists including Dua Lipa as they zoomed across arena stages in glitter, cut-outs and ostrich feathers, highlighted against camp sets. A top stylist Lorenzo Posocco mentioned in an interview with a style publication he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the 1950s, Lipa’s dancers wafted giant ostrich feather fans.
Drawing from Tradition
These artists and other chart toppers also reference 19th-century performances, including vaudeville and chorus line references. The final look are poles apart from the 90s pop style of revealing tops and cargo pants, and urban dance moves that came before them.
But some critics are convinced with this glamour resurgence. Nancy Hardy, a former Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the early 2000s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “treated as an umbrella term including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently modern pop stars.”
A Highly Sought-After Retro Look
For millennial and modern stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a famous actress honored to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the star wore a semi-sheer beaded dress created by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, another pop star 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, Sabrina Carpenter wore a collection of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a favorite among fashion collectors.
“Showgirls evoke a sense of longing for a historical elegance,” says Su Kim Chung, an expert at the a Las Vegas university, who documents the story of showgirls. “Today it is viewed as a sort of ‘toned-down’ allure because it has been adapted. It has got all the elegance, the crystals and the sparkle but without the bare skin.”
More Than Just Style: An Symbol of Las Vegas
The expert says this figure are integral to the imagery of Las Vegas. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was accompanied by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas does not host any showgirl-centric productions, Jung says they are still employed as an symbol of the city, appearing at conventions and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a lasting symbol of Vegas spectacle,” the expert says.
The Appeal of Illusion
Nancy Hardy says the complete change of a stage character is part of the allure. This is a notion Swift hints at in a new documentary series that documents the off-camera action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included intense preparations, gym sessions and countless concerts across 21 countries, each lasting 3.5 hours.
The performer describes her own showgirl performances as “like running a marathon in high heels every night”. Her feathered headdress tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the stairs to the stage from the dressing rooms three floors below in the underground. I had to leave early for my entrance so I could recover before I made my entrance. You’re perspiring the whole time but creating this image that it’s effortless and stunning and magical.”
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 fantasy. Who better to look to than showgirls, who have always embodied fantasy, perfection and a universe where nobody falters.
