Following a 31-year run on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the performers from the revue Jubilee! gave one last choreographed kick in 2016. The production, renowned for its ornate costumes created by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, came to an end due to falling audience numbers and unimpressed reviewers who described it as a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Now, roughly eight years later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl style, is back.
A Master of Sequins
Dubbed the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made over-the-top stage sparkle his defining aesthetic, dressing everyone from screen legends to Madonna. In a recent auction, a “barely-there” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, far exceeding its estimated price, while a shimmering beaded bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more appealing for the younger performer who is desiring something other than what they knew from childhood”, he stated in an interview with a publication. “Today's artists are striving for a glamorous, more dramatic, show-stopping, entrance-making statement.”
The Mainstream Revival
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the epicenter of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 largely due to a global pop icon. In the past few months, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The bedazzled bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and sparkly headpiece were tailor-made for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer has company. This year, showgirl inspirations have been adopted by pop stars including Dua Lipa as they whizzed across world tours in glitter, cut-outs and ostrich feathers, illuminated against camp sets. Lipa’s stylist her creative director told Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the mid-century, the backup dancers waved giant ostrich feather fans.
Pulling from Tradition
Lipa, Carpenter and other successful musicians also take inspiration from classic performances, including vaudeville and chorus line references. The results are worlds away from the 90s pop style of revealing tops and baggy pants, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that were popular earlier.
But certain observers are on board with this showgirl revival. Nancy Hardy, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the 00s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “employed as an catch-all phrase including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently Taylor Swift.”
The Highly Sought-After Vintage Style
For gen Z and millennial stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become incredibly sought-after. In 2024, a famous actress paid tribute to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the actor wore a translucent sequined dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, Miley Cyrus paid an private amount to buy the Mackie beaded 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 popular item among collectors.
“Showgirls evoke a sense of longing for a past glamour,” says Su Kim Chung, a curator at the University of Nevada, who studies the history of showgirls. “Currently it is considered a sort of ‘safe’ appeal because it has been modified. It has got all the glamour, the crystals and the sparkle but without the exposure.”
A Than Just Fashion: An Symbol of the City
She says showgirls are integral to the iconography of Vegas. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was surrounded by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas currently lacks any traditional showgirl productions, Jung says they are still featured as an emblem of the city, appearing at conventions and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a remaining symbol of Las Vegas spectacle,” she says.
The Appeal of Illusion
Nancy Hardy says the magical transformation of a stage character is part of the allure. It’s something Taylor Swift alludes to in a recent documentary series that captures the behind-the-scenes action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting preparations, training and 149 performances across dozens of cities, each lasting 3.5 hours.
She explains her own stage routines as “similar to extreme physical exertion in stilettos every night”. Her headdress was 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the steps to the performance area from the dressing rooms three floors below in the basement. I had to leave early for my entrance so I could catch my breath before I went on stage. You are perspiring the whole time but maintaining this image that it’s easy and gorgeous and ethereal.”
Maybe this is where the appeal of the showgirl fantasy really lies. In the complexity of 2025 there is a longing for escapism. Is there anyone better to look to than such icons, who have always represented fantasy, flawlessness and a realm where no one makes a mistake.
