After a long-running tenure on the Las Vegas strip, the showgirls from the production Jubilee! took a final synchronised kick in 2016. The show, renowned for its ornate costumes designed by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to falling audience numbers and disappointed critics who called it a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Now, almost a decade later, showgirls, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is back.
A Sultan of Sparkle
Known as the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made theatrical showgirl glitz his defining aesthetic, outfitting everyone from screen legends to Madonna. In a recent auction, a “naked” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, well over its estimated price, while a silver and gold beaded bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more enticing for the emerging artists who is looking for something other than what they were accustomed to”, he stated in an interview with a newspaper. “Contemporary performers are embracing a glamorous, more theatrical, breathtaking, entrance-making statement.”
The Mainstream Comeback
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the centre of popular culture in 2025 propelled by a chart-topping superstar. Recently, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The bedazzled bra and thong, plumed armbands and sparkly headpiece were tailor-made for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift has company. This year, showgirl references have been embraced by pop stars including Sabrina Carpenter as they zoomed across arena stages in sparkles, cut-outs and feathers, spotlighted against camp sets. Lipa’s stylist a fashion expert mentioned in an interview with Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the mid-century, Lipa’s dancers waved giant ostrich feather fans.
Drawing from the Past
These artists and other chart toppers also reference 19th-century entertainment forms, including burlesque and chorus line references. The results are worlds away from the 90s Britney Spears era of crop tops and utilitarian trousers, and street-style dance moves that preceded this trend.
But certain observers are convinced with this showgirl renaissance. Nancy Hardy, a ex- Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the early 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “used as an broad label encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly Taylor Swift.”
The Highly Sought-After Vintage Look
For millennial and modern stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a style icon honored to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the star wore a semi-sheer embellished dress made by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, a singer paid an significant price to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn earlier in the year 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 fashion collectors.
“Showgirls evoke a sense of longing for a past glamour,” says Su Kim Chung, an expert at the University of Nevada, who researches the history of showgirls. “Now it is seen as a sort of ‘toned-down’ appeal because it has been modified. It has got all the sophistication, the crystals and the sparkle but without the exposure.”
More Than Just Style: An Symbol of Vegas
Chung says showgirls are central to the imagery of Sin City. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was accompanied by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-centric productions, Chung says they are still featured as an logo of the city, appearing at conventions and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a remaining symbol of Vegas glamour,” Chung says.
The Appeal of Escape
Nancy Hardy says the transformative effect of a showgirl persona is part of the appeal. It’s something the singer hints at in a new documentary series that captures the backstage action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling rehearsals, gym sessions and countless concerts across multiple nations, each running for 3.5 hours.
She describes her own stage routines as “similar to extreme physical exertion in high heels every night”. Her headpiece was 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the steps to the platform from the backstage area three floors below in the basement. I had to leave early for my entrance so I could recover before I performed. You are perspiring the whole time but maintaining this image that it’s effortless and beautiful and dreamlike.”
It could be this is where the true allure of the showgirl fantasy really lies. In the busyness of 2025 there is a desire for fantasy. What better figure to turn to than these performers, who have always personified fantasy, perfection and a world where nobody falters.