After a long-running stint on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the dancers from the production Jubilee! took a final perfectly timed kick in 2016. The production, renowned for its ornate costumes crafted by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to dwindling audience numbers and critical reviewers who labeled it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Now, roughly eight years later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is back.
A King of Glitz
Dubbed the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made theatrical showgirl glitz his signature style, dressing everyone from screen legends to Madonna. In a recent auction, a “barely-there” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, seven times its initial estimate, while a silver and gold beaded bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more appealing for the emerging artists who is desiring something other than what they knew from childhood”, he explained to a newspaper. “New stars are embracing a show-stopping, more dramatic, show-stopping, grand statement.”
The Mainstream Comeback
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the centre of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 propelled by a global pop icon. 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, feathered armbands and glittering headpiece were tailor-made for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.
She isn't alone. This year, showgirl references have been adopted by singers including Sabrina Carpenter as they zoomed across world tours in glitter, revealing designs and plumes, illuminated against overstated sets. A top stylist her creative director told a style publication he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the mid-century, her performers wafted giant ostrich feather fans.
Pulling from History
Lipa, Carpenter and other successful musicians also reference 19th-century entertainment forms, including vaudeville and chorus line references. The outcome are vastly different from the 1990s era teen pop of short shirts and baggy pants, and urban dance moves that preceded this trend.
But not everyone are enthusiastic with this showgirl revival. Nancy Hardy, a ex- Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the 2000s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word term is being “used as an catch-all phrase covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently today's icons.”
A Coveted Retro Style
For younger and modern stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a famous actress gave a nod to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, 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. Months after, Miley Cyrus paid an significant price 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 classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among vintage enthusiasts.
“Showgirls inspire a sense of longing for a past glamour,” says an archivist, a curator at the University of Nevada, who studies the story of showgirls. “Now it is viewed as a sort of ‘acceptable’ sexy because it has been updated. It has got all the elegance, the crystals and the glitter but without the nudity.”
A Than Just Fashion: An Icon of Las Vegas
She says the showgirl image are key to the imagery of Sin City. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was flanked by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-based productions, Jung says they are still featured as an symbol of the city, showing up at corporate events and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a remaining icon of Vegas glitz and glamour,” she says.
The Appeal of Illusion
Hardy says the complete change of a showgirl is part of the appeal. This is a notion Swift alludes to in a new behind-the-scenes film that documents the off-camera action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling rehearsals, training and numerous performances across dozens of cities, each lasting 3.5 hours.
She recalls her own nights in the spotlight as “similar to running a marathon in high heels every night”. Her headpiece weighed 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the stairs to the platform from the backstage area three floors below in the lower level. I had to leave early for my cue so I could rest before I performed. One is sweating the whole time but creating this fantasy that it’s easy and beautiful and magical.”
Perhaps this is where the true allure of the showgirl fantasy really lies. In the chaos of 2025 there is a craving for fantasy. Is there anyone better to look to than these performers, who have always represented make-believe, perfection and a world where nobody misses a mark.
