After a three-decade tenure on the Las Vegas strip, the dancers from the production Jubilee! executed their last synchronised kick in 2016. The production, known for its elaborate costumes created by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, ended its run due to declining audience numbers and unimpressed critics who labeled it a spectacle “trapped in time”.
Today, roughly eight years later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl style, is experiencing a revival.
A Sultan of Glitz
Dubbed the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glamour his trademark look, dressing everyone from Marilyn Monroe to pop royalty. In a recent auction, a “see-through” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, well over its projected value, while a silver and gold fringed bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more enticing for the emerging artists who is looking for something other than what they knew from childhood”, he told a publication. “Today's artists are striving for a show-stopping, more dramatic, show-stopping, grand statement.”
The Pop Culture Comeback
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the epicenter 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 12th studio album. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, feathered armbands and sparkly headpiece were tailor-made for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift has company. This year, showgirl inspirations have been embraced by singers including Miley Cyrus as they zoomed across world tours in glitter, strategic openings and feathers, illuminated against theatrical sets. A top stylist a fashion expert told a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the 50s, Lipa’s dancers wafted giant plumed accessories.
Drawing from History
These artists and other chart toppers also draw on classic entertainment forms, including vaudeville and chorus line references. The final look are vastly different from the 90s Britney Spears era of crop tops and utilitarian trousers, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that came before them.
But some critics are convinced with this showgirl revival. A former performer, a former Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the 00s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word term is being “treated as an catch-all phrase encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly Taylor Swift.”
A Highly Sought-After Vintage Look
For gen Z and modern stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a famous actress gave a nod to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the actress wore a see-through beaded dress created by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, another pop star paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn at an awards show to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a series of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among collectors.
“Showgirls inspire nostalgia for a bygone era of glitz,” says an archivist, a curator at the an academic institution, who documents the history of showgirls. “Today it is seen as a sort of ‘safe’ allure because it has been modified. It has got all the glamour, the rhinestones and the glitter but without the exposure.”
More Than Simply Style: An Symbol of the City
Chung says showgirls are key to the imagery of Las Vegas. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was surrounded by two showgirls. While Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-centric productions, Chung says they are still used as an logo of the city, showing up at conventions and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a enduring icon of Vegas spectacle,” she says.
The Appeal of Escape
The former showgirl says the magical transformation of a showgirl is part of the allure. This idea Swift references in a recent documentary series that documents the off-camera action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting preparations, workouts and numerous concerts across 21 countries, each going on for 3.5 hours.
Hardy explains her own nights in the spotlight as “comparable to completing an endurance race in heels every night”. Her headpiece weighed 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the steps to the performance area from the green rooms three floors below in the underground. I had to leave early for my entrance so I could recover before I performed. You’re working hard the whole time but crafting this image that it’s simple and gorgeous and magical.”
Maybe this is where the true allure of the showgirl really is found. In the complexity of 2025 there is a longing for escapism. Is there anyone better to turn to than such icons, who have always represented make-believe, idealism and a world where nobody makes a mistake.
