After a long-running run on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the performers from the spectacle Jubilee! took a final synchronised kick in 2016. The extravaganza, known for its intricate costumes created by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, ended its run due to declining audience numbers and unimpressed commentators who called it a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Now, roughly eight years later, showgirls, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is making a comeback.
The Sultan of Sparkle
Known as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made theatrical showgirl glamour his trademark look, clothing everyone from Hollywood icons to pop royalty. Recently, a “barely-there” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, well over its projected value, while a silver and gold beaded bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more enticing for the younger performer who is seeking something other than what they grew up with”, he stated in an interview with a newspaper. “Today's artists are embracing a show-stopping, more dramatic, show-stopping, grand statement.”
The Mainstream Revival
It’s a look that glided all the way to the heart of popular culture in 2025 thanks to Taylor Swift. In the past few months, 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 perfect for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
She has company. This year, showgirl inspirations have been incorporated by music artists including Miley Cyrus as they zoomed across world tours in sequins, revealing designs and plumes, highlighted against camp sets. A top stylist her creative director told a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the 1950s, Lipa’s dancers waved giant ostrich feather fans.
Drawing from the Past
These artists and other hitmakers also reference 19th-century entertainment forms, including classic theater and ensemble references. The outcome are worlds away from the late-century teen pop of crop tops and cargo pants, and street-style dance moves that came before them.
But not everyone are enthusiastic with this glamour resurgence. Nancy Hardy, a ex- Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “employed as an broad label including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently Taylor Swift.”
The Highly Sought-After Retro Look
For gen Z and millennial stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become incredibly sought-after. In 2024, a famous actress gave a nod to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actor wore a translucent sequined dress made by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, another pop star paid an significant price to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn previously 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 bring about a sense of longing for a bygone era of glitz,” says Su Kim Chung, an expert at the a Las Vegas university, who researches the legacy of showgirls. “Today it is seen as a sort of ‘toned-down’ sexy because it has been adapted. It has got all the elegance, the sparkles and the shine but without the bare skin.”
More Than Simply Style: An Symbol of Vegas
Chung says this figure are key to the identity of Sin City. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was flanked by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas currently lacks any traditional showgirl productions, Jung says they are still employed as an logo of the city, being present at corporate events and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a remaining figure of Las Vegas glamour,” Chung says.
The Appeal of Transformation
Nancy Hardy says the transformative effect of a stage character is part of the attraction. This idea the singer hints at in a latest docuseries that shows the off-camera action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included intense preparations, gym sessions and 149 performances across 21 countries, each running for 3.5 hours.
Hardy describes her own showgirl performances as “similar to extreme physical exertion in high heels every night”. Her headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the staircase to the performance area from the green rooms three floors below in the lower level. I had to start early for my cue so I could rest before I performed. One is perspiring the whole time but crafting this image that it’s easy and gorgeous and magical.”
It could be this is where the true allure of the showgirl fantasy really resides. In the complexity of 2025 there is a desire for fantasy. What better figure to turn to than showgirls, who have always represented fantasy, idealism and a world where nobody misses a mark.
