After a long-running tenure on the iconic Vegas strip, the showgirls from the revue Jubilee! executed their last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The show, known for its intricate costumes crafted by style icon Bob Mackie, came to an end due to dwindling audience numbers and critical critics who labeled it a spectacle “trapped in time”.
Now, roughly eight years later, the showgirl, or at least the showgirl style, is making a comeback.
A King of Sparkle
Referred to as the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made dramatic stage sparkle his trademark look, outfitting everyone from Hollywood icons to music superstars. In a recent auction, a “naked” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, well over its initial estimate, while a silver and gold fringed bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more attractive for the emerging artists who is desiring something other than what they knew from childhood”, he explained to a media outlet. “New stars are embracing a show-stopping, more spectacular, attention-grabbing, grand statement.”
The Musical Revival
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the heart of popular culture in 2025 propelled by Taylor Swift. In the past few months, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, plumed armbands and shimmering headpiece were perfect for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer is part of a trend. This year, glamorous nods have been embraced by singers including Miley Cyrus as they zoomed across arena stages in sequins, strategic openings and feathers, spotlighted against camp sets. Lipa’s stylist a fashion expert mentioned in an interview with Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the 1950s, her performers wafted giant plumed accessories.
Pulling from History
Lipa, Carpenter and other successful musicians also take inspiration from 19th-century entertainment forms, including vaudeville and chorus line references. The final look are vastly different from the 90s teen pop of crop tops and baggy pants, and urban dance moves that preceded this trend.
But some critics are on board with this glamour resurgence. Nancy Hardy, a former Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the 2000s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “used as an umbrella term encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly today's icons.”
The Highly Sought-After Classic Look
For younger and young adult stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become incredibly sought-after. In 2024, a famous actress paid tribute to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the star wore a see-through embellished dress created by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, Miley Cyrus paid an private amount to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn earlier in the year to perform at the Grammys. In September, Sabrina Carpenter wore a trio of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among fashion collectors.
“Showgirls evoke nostalgia for a past glamour,” says a historian, an expert at the an academic institution, who studies the legacy of showgirls. “Currently it is considered a sort of ‘toned-down’ sexy because it has been modified. It has got all the glamour, the rhinestones and the sparkle but without the bare skin.”
More Than Simply Fashion: An Symbol of the City
The expert says this figure are integral to the imagery of Las Vegas. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was surrounded by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-centric productions, Chung says they are still used as an emblem of the city, appearing at conventions and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a enduring icon of Vegas glamour,” Chung says.
The Allure of Illusion
Nancy Hardy says the transformative effect of a stage character is part of the appeal. It’s something Taylor Swift alludes to in a recent documentary series that captures the behind-the-scenes action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting rehearsals, workouts and numerous concerts across multiple nations, each running for 3.5 hours.
The performer describes her own nights in the spotlight as “comparable to running a marathon in high heels 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 lower level. I had to start early for my entrance so I could recover before I made my entrance. One is perspiring the whole time but crafting this illusion that it’s simple and gorgeous and dreamlike.”
Perhaps this is where the fascination of the showgirl really lies. In the busyness of 2025 there is a longing for fantasy. What better figure to turn to than such icons, who have always embodied fantasy, perfection and a universe where no one falters.
