Following a 31-year stint on the iconic Vegas strip, the showgirls from the production Jubilee! took a final perfectly timed kick in 2016. The production, famous for its intricate costumes crafted by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, came to an end due to falling audience numbers and disappointed reviewers who called it a spectacle “trapped in time”.
Today, roughly eight years later, the showgirl, or at least the showgirl style, is back.
A Master of Glitz
Known as the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made theatrical showgirl glamour his defining aesthetic, outfitting everyone from screen legends to Madonna. In a recent auction, a “barely-there” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, well over its initial estimate, while a silver and gold tasseled bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more enticing for the younger performer who is looking for something other than what they were accustomed to”, he told a publication. “New stars are striving for a theatrical, more spectacular, breathtaking, grand statement.”
A Pop Culture Resurgence
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the centre of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 propelled by a global pop icon. In the past few months, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The crystal-covered bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and glittering headpiece were tailor-made for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift is part of a trend. This year, glamorous nods have been adopted by singers including Dua Lipa as they zoomed across arena stages in sequins, revealing designs and ostrich feathers, illuminated against overstated sets. A top stylist her creative director told Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the 50s, Lipa’s dancers fluttered giant plumed accessories.
Drawing from History
Lipa, Carpenter and other chart toppers also reference historical entertainment forms, including classic theater and chorus line references. The final look are vastly different from the 1990s era teen pop of crop tops and baggy pants, and street-style dance moves that came before them.
But some critics are on board with this showgirl renaissance. A former performer, a former Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the early 2000s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “used as an catch-all phrase covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even today's icons.”
A Coveted Classic Look
For younger and modern stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a style icon gave a nod to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the actress wore a translucent embellished dress made by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, a singer paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn previously 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 favorite among fashion collectors.
“Showgirls evoke fond memories for a bygone era of glitz,” says a historian, a curator at the University of Nevada, who documents the story of showgirls. “Now it is considered a sort of ‘acceptable’ sexy because it has been adapted. It has got all the sophistication, the rhinestones and the sparkle but without the exposure.”
More Than Just Fashion: An Symbol of Vegas
The expert says showgirls are central to the iconography of Vegas. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was flanked by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-based productions, the historian says they are still featured as an emblem of the city, showing up at corporate events and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a remaining figure of Vegas glamour,” Chung says.
An Allure of Escape
Nancy Hardy says the complete change of a showgirl is part of the appeal. This idea Taylor Swift alludes to in a new behind-the-scenes film that captures the backstage action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included intense preparations, training and numerous shows across multiple nations, each lasting 3.5 hours.
She describes her own showgirl performances as “like extreme physical exertion in heels every night”. Her feathered headdress was 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the stairs to the platform from the dressing rooms three floors below in the basement. I had to start early for my entrance so I could catch my breath before I performed. One is perspiring the whole time but crafting this image that it’s effortless and gorgeous and dreamlike.”
Perhaps this is where the fascination of the showgirl fantasy really resides. In the chaos of 2025 there is a craving for a break from reality. What better figure to look to than these performers, who have always represented make-believe, perfection and a universe where no one falters.
