After a three-decade run on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the dancers from the spectacle Jubilee! gave one last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The extravaganza, famous for its intricate costumes created by style icon Bob Mackie, came to an end due to declining audience numbers and critical reviewers who called it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Currently, roughly eight years later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is back.
A Sultan of Sequins
Dubbed the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made theatrical showgirl glamour his signature style, dressing everyone from screen legends to pop royalty. Earlier this month, a “see-through” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, seven times its initial estimate, while a silver and gold beaded bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“I believe 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. “Today's artists are embracing a show-stopping, more theatrical, show-stopping, entrance-making statement.”
The Pop Culture Resurgence
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the heart of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 thanks to a chart-topping superstar. In the past few months, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, plumed armbands and glittering headpiece were perfect for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer isn't alone. This year, showgirl inspirations have been incorporated by singers including Sabrina Carpenter as they whizzed across concert platforms in glitter, cut-outs and feathers, highlighted against overstated sets. A top stylist her creative director mentioned in an interview with a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the mid-century, Lipa’s dancers waved giant ostrich feather fans.
Pulling from the Past
These artists and other chart toppers also take inspiration from 19th-century entertainment forms, including vaudeville and ensemble references. The results are worlds away from the 90s pop style of crop tops and baggy pants, and urban dance moves that came before them.
But not everyone are on board with this showgirl revival. An ex-showgirl, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the early 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “employed as an broad label covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently today's icons.”
A Highly Sought-After Vintage Style
For gen Z and young adult stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a style icon honored to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the star wore a translucent embellished dress created by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, another pop star paid an private amount to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn previously to perform at the Grammys. In September, Sabrina Carpenter wore a collection of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a favorite among fashion collectors.
“The showgirl aesthetic bring about fond memories for a past glamour,” says Su Kim Chung, head of special collections at the a Las Vegas university, who researches the story of showgirls. “Today it is considered a sort of ‘safe’ appeal because it has been adapted. It has got all the elegance, the sparkles and the shine but without the nudity.”
More Than Simply Fashion: An Icon of the City
She says this figure are central to the iconography of Sin City. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was surrounded by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas currently lacks any traditional showgirl productions, Jung says they are still featured as an symbol of the city, being present at corporate events and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a enduring symbol of Las Vegas glitz and glamour,” the expert says.
An Appeal of Escape
Nancy Hardy says the magical transformation of a stage character is part of the attraction. This idea Swift references in a new documentary series that shows the backstage action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included intense preparations, training and countless performances across 21 countries, each lasting 3.5 hours.
Hardy explains her own showgirl performances as “similar to extreme physical exertion in heels every night”. Her headpiece weighed 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the stairs to the platform from the backstage area three floors below in the lower level. I had to start early for my cue so I could rest before I performed. You’re working hard the whole time but maintaining this image that it’s effortless and beautiful and magical.”
Maybe this is where the fascination of the showgirl fantasy really resides. In the complexity of 2025 there is a longing for fantasy. Who better to look to than such icons, who have always personified dreams, flawlessness and a realm where nobody falters.
