Following a 31-year tenure on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the showgirls from the spectacle Jubilee! took a final perfectly timed kick in 2016. The show, renowned for its intricate costumes crafted by style icon Bob Mackie, ended its run due to dwindling audience numbers and critical commentators who labeled it a spectacle “trapped in time”.
Today, nearly ten years later, the showgirl persona, or at least the showgirl style, is making a comeback.
A Master of Glitz
Dubbed the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glitz his defining aesthetic, outfitting everyone from Hollywood icons to music superstars. Earlier this month, a “barely-there” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, seven times its initial estimate, while a shimmering fringed bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more attractive for the emerging artists who is desiring something other than what they grew up with”, he stated in an interview with a newspaper. “Contemporary performers are striving for a show-stopping, more spectacular, show-stopping, entrance-making statement.”
The Pop Culture Comeback
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the epicenter of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 largely due to a chart-topping superstar. Earlier this year, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The bedazzled bra and thong, plumed armbands and shimmering headpiece were perfect for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift isn't alone. This year, showgirl inspirations have been adopted by singers including Sabrina Carpenter as they whizzed across arena stages in sequins, cut-outs and feathers, highlighted against theatrical sets. Her fashion curator a fashion expert explained to Vogue he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the 50s, her performers wafted giant plumed accessories.
Drawing from History
Lipa, Carpenter and other hitmakers also draw on historical performances, including classic theater and ensemble references. The outcome are vastly different from the 90s Britney Spears era of crop tops and cargo pants, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that preceded this trend.
But some critics are enthusiastic with this showgirl renaissance. A former performer, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the 2000s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “used as an broad label including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently modern pop stars.”
The Coveted Classic Style
For millennial and young adult stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, Zendaya gave a nod to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the actress wore a see-through beaded dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he made 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, Carpenter wore a collection of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among fashion collectors.
“The showgirl aesthetic inspire a sense of longing for a historical elegance,” says a historian, an expert at the a Las Vegas university, who documents the legacy of showgirls. “Currently it is viewed as a sort of ‘acceptable’ sexy because it has been adapted. It has got all the glamour, the rhinestones and the shine but without the exposure.”
A Than Just Fashion: An Symbol of Vegas
She says this figure are integral to the iconography of Sin City. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was surrounded by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-centric productions, the historian says they are still used as an logo of the city, being present at conventions and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a lasting figure of Las Vegas spectacle,” she says.
An Allure of Transformation
Hardy says the transformative effect of a showgirl is part of the allure. It’s something Taylor Swift references in a recent behind-the-scenes film that captures the behind-the-scenes action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included intense preparations, workouts and numerous concerts across dozens of cities, each lasting 3.5 hours.
She describes her own showgirl performances as “like extreme physical exertion in heels every night”. Her headpiece weighed 34lbs. “I had to wear 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 rest before I went on stage. You are perspiring the whole time but creating this fantasy that it’s effortless and beautiful and magical.”
It could be this is where the appeal of the showgirl fantasy really lies. In the complexity of 2025 there is a longing for escapism. Who better to turn to than such icons, who have always personified dreams, idealism and a world where nobody misses a mark.
