After a long-running stint on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the performers from the revue Jubilee! gave one last synchronised kick in 2016. The production, renowned for its elaborate costumes created by style icon Bob Mackie, ended its run due to dwindling audience numbers and critical critics who called it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Now, roughly eight years later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is back.
The Sultan of Sequins
Known as the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glamour his signature style, clothing everyone from Hollywood icons to music superstars. In a recent auction, a “naked” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, seven times its projected value, while a shimmering tasseled 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 younger performer who is seeking something other than what they were accustomed to”, he told a publication. “Today's artists are pushing toward a theatrical, more theatrical, show-stopping, entrance-making statement.”
A Pop Culture Comeback
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the epicenter of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 thanks to Taylor Swift. In the past few months, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The bedazzled bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and glittering headpiece were perfect for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
She has company. This year, glamorous nods have been incorporated by music artists including Dua Lipa as they danced across world tours in glitter, strategic openings and ostrich feathers, illuminated against camp sets. Her fashion curator her creative director mentioned in an interview with Vogue he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the mid-century, her performers waved giant feathered fans.
Drawing from History
Lipa, Carpenter and other hitmakers also reference classic entertainment forms, including classic theater and chorus line references. The final look are poles apart from the late-century pop style of crop tops and utilitarian trousers, and street-style dance moves that were popular earlier.
But some critics are convinced with this glamour resurgence. A former performer, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the 2000s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “employed as an umbrella term encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even modern pop stars.”
A Coveted Classic Look
For gen Z and modern stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, Zendaya honored to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the actor wore a semi-sheer embellished dress created by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, a singer paid an significant price to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn previously to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a series of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among fashion collectors.
“This style inspire a sense of longing for a historical elegance,” says an archivist, an expert at the an academic institution, who documents the history of showgirls. “Currently it is seen as a sort of ‘toned-down’ sexy because it has been adapted. It has got all the sophistication, the sparkles and the glitter but without the bare skin.”
More Than Simply Fashion: An Icon of Vegas
Chung says this figure are central to the imagery of Sin City. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was surrounded by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-centric productions, Chung says they are still employed as an emblem of the city, showing up at corporate events and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a enduring symbol of Vegas spectacle,” Chung says.
The Allure of Transformation
Nancy Hardy says the magical transformation of a stage character is part of the allure. It’s something Swift hints at in a latest documentary series that shows the backstage action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling rehearsals, training and countless shows across multiple nations, each going on for 3.5 hours.
The performer explains her own showgirl performances as “comparable to running a marathon in stilettos every night”. Her headdress tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the steps to the stage from the dressing rooms three floors below in the basement. I had to start early for my entrance so I could rest before I went on stage. One is working hard the whole time but creating this illusion that it’s simple and gorgeous and magical.”
Perhaps this is where the appeal of the showgirl really is found. In the chaos of 2025 there is a desire for fantasy. What better figure to turn to than these performers, who have always represented make-believe, perfection and a universe where nobody misses a mark.
