After a long-running stint on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the showgirls from the spectacle Jubilee! executed their last synchronised kick in 2016. The show, famous for its intricate costumes created by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, came to an end due to dwindling audience numbers and critical critics who called it a spectacle “trapped in time”.
Currently, roughly eight years later, the showgirl persona, or at least the showgirl style, is experiencing a revival.
A Master of Sequins
Dubbed the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made theatrical stage sparkle his signature style, outfitting everyone from Hollywood icons to music superstars. In a recent auction, a “barely-there” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, seven times its initial estimate, while a shimmering tasseled bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more enticing for the emerging artists who is desiring something other than what they were accustomed to”, he stated in an interview with a publication. “Today's artists are pushing toward a theatrical, more theatrical, attention-grabbing, grand statement.”
The Mainstream Revival
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the epicenter of popular culture in 2025 propelled by a global pop icon. Earlier this year, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s original 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 titled The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer is part of a trend. This year, showgirl references have been embraced by music artists including Sabrina Carpenter as they zoomed across world tours in glitter, strategic openings and ostrich feathers, highlighted against camp sets. Lipa’s stylist her creative director explained to a style publication he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the mid-century, the backup dancers wafted giant feathered fans.
Drawing from Tradition
These artists and other successful musicians also reference classic performances, including burlesque and chorus line references. The final look are poles apart from the late-century pop style of short shirts and utilitarian trousers, and street-style dance moves that preceded this trend.
But certain observers are on board with this glamour resurgence. An ex-showgirl, a ex- Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the 00s says the trend is “bemusing”. 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 apparently modern pop stars.”
A Coveted Classic Look
For gen Z and young adult stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a style icon honored to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the star wore a see-through sequined dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, another pop star 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 series of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among collectors.
“Showgirls evoke a sense of longing for a bygone era of glitz,” says an archivist, a curator at the a Las Vegas university, who researches the story of showgirls. “Today it is viewed as a sort of ‘acceptable’ appeal because it has been modified. It has got all the elegance, the sparkles and the sparkle but without the nudity.”
A Than Just Fashion: An Icon of Vegas
She says this figure are central to the iconography of Las Vegas. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was surrounded by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-based productions, Chung says they are still featured as an emblem of the city, appearing at conventions and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a lasting symbol of Vegas spectacle,” she says.
The Allure of Escape
Nancy Hardy says the transformative effect of a showgirl persona is part of the appeal. This idea Swift hints at in a new docuseries that captures the backstage action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting practice sessions, gym sessions and numerous concerts across multiple nations, each going on for 3.5 hours.
The performer recalls her own showgirl performances as “like extreme physical exertion in high heels every night”. Her feathered headdress tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the stairs to the stage from the green rooms 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 perspiring the whole time but creating this image that it’s simple and gorgeous and dreamlike.”
Maybe this is where the fascination of the showgirl fantasy really is found. In the complexity of 2025 there is a desire for fantasy. Is there anyone better to turn to than these performers, who have always personified fantasy, idealism and a realm where nobody makes a mistake.
