After a three-decade run on the Las Vegas strip, the performers from the revue Jubilee! gave one last synchronised kick in 2016. The production, known for its elaborate costumes created by style icon Bob Mackie, came to an end due to declining audience numbers and critical critics who labeled it a spectacle “trapped in time”.
Currently, nearly ten years later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl style, is making a comeback.
A King of Sparkle
Known as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made over-the-top showgirl glamour his signature style, clothing everyone from Hollywood icons to music superstars. Earlier this month, a “see-through” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, seven times its estimated price, while a shimmering fringed bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more appealing for the younger performer who is seeking something other than what they grew up with”, he explained to a newspaper. “Contemporary performers are striving for a show-stopping, more spectacular, attention-grabbing, grand statement.”
The Mainstream Comeback
It’s a look that glided 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 vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and sparkly headpiece were tailor-made for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift is part of a trend. This year, showgirl references have been embraced by pop stars including Miley Cyrus as they whizzed across world tours in glitter, cut-outs and feathers, highlighted against theatrical sets. Her fashion curator her creative director mentioned in an interview with Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the mid-century, the backup dancers fluttered giant plumed accessories.
Drawing from History
These artists and other successful musicians also draw on 19th-century entertainment forms, including classic theater and dance line references. The final look are vastly different from the 1990s era teen pop of crop tops and utilitarian trousers, and urban dance moves that preceded this trend.
But some critics are convinced with this glamour resurgence. Nancy Hardy, a former Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the 00s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “treated as an broad label encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly today's icons.”
The Coveted Retro Style
For gen Z and millennial stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become incredibly sought-after. In 2024, a famous actress gave a nod to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actress wore a translucent embellished dress created by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, another pop star paid an private amount to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn at an awards show to perform at the Grammys. In September, the singer wore a collection of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among fashion collectors.
“Showgirls inspire a sense of longing for a bygone era of glitz,” says a historian, head of special collections at the an academic institution, who documents the legacy of showgirls. “Now it is viewed as a sort of ‘safe’ allure because it has been adapted. It has got all the glamour, the crystals and the glitter but without the nudity.”
A Than Just Style: An Symbol of Vegas
She says showgirls are central to the imagery of Vegas. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was accompanied by two showgirls. While Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-based productions, Chung says they are still used as an emblem of the city, being present at corporate events and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a enduring icon of Vegas spectacle,” she says.
An Appeal of Illusion
Nancy Hardy says the transformative effect of a stage character is part of the allure. It’s something the singer hints at in a latest documentary series that captures the backstage action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting rehearsals, training and numerous concerts across 21 countries, each running for 3.5 hours.
The performer describes her own stage routines as “similar to running a marathon in heels every night”. Her headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the steps to the platform from the backstage area three floors below in the lower level. I had to start early for my moment so I could catch my breath before I made my entrance. One is sweating the whole time but crafting this image that it’s effortless and stunning and ethereal.”
Maybe this is where the appeal of the showgirl fantasy really resides. In the complexity of 2025 there is a desire for escapism. What better figure to look to than showgirls, who have always embodied fantasy, flawlessness and a world where no one misses a mark.
