Following a 31-year run on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the performers from the revue Jubilee! executed their last choreographed kick in 2016. The show, renowned for its ornate costumes created by style icon Bob Mackie, ended its run due to dwindling audience numbers and unimpressed reviewers who described it as a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Now, almost a decade later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is making a comeback.
A King of Sequins
Dubbed the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made over-the-top showgirl glitz his signature style, dressing everyone from Hollywood icons to Madonna. In a recent auction, a “see-through” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, well over its initial estimate, while a shimmering fringed bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more enticing for the younger performer who is looking for something other than what they grew up with”, he told a media outlet. “New stars are striving for a theatrical, more theatrical, breathtaking, memorable statement.”
A Musical Comeback
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the epicenter of popular culture in 2025 largely due to Taylor Swift. Recently, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The bedazzled bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and shimmering headpiece were tailor-made for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift has company. This year, showgirl references have been incorporated by music artists including Miley Cyrus as they zoomed across world tours in sequins, revealing designs and plumes, illuminated against theatrical sets. A top stylist her creative director mentioned in an interview with a style publication he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the mid-century, Lipa’s dancers wafted giant ostrich feather fans.
Pulling from History
Modern stars and other successful musicians also take inspiration from 19th-century entertainment forms, including classic theater and ensemble references. The results are worlds away from the 1990s era pop style of crop tops and utilitarian trousers, and street-style dance moves that were popular earlier.
But certain observers are convinced with this glamour resurgence. A former performer, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the early 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “employed as an umbrella term including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently today's icons.”
The Coveted Classic Style
For younger and modern stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a style icon paid tribute to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the actor wore a translucent embellished dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, another pop star paid an private amount to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn at an awards show to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a trio of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a favorite among fashion collectors.
“This style inspire fond memories for a bygone era of glitz,” says a historian, a curator at the University of Nevada, who documents the story of showgirls. “Currently it is seen as a sort of ‘safe’ appeal because it has been modified. It has got all the sophistication, the crystals and the glitter but without the nudity.”
A Than Simply Style: An Icon of Las Vegas
The expert says showgirls are key to the identity of Sin City. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was flanked by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas currently lacks any traditional showgirl productions, the historian says they are still used as an logo of the city, showing up at corporate events and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a enduring figure of Vegas spectacle,” she says.
The Allure of Escape
Hardy says the complete change of a showgirl is part of the attraction. It’s something the singer alludes to in a new behind-the-scenes film that documents the behind-the-scenes action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting practice sessions, gym sessions and numerous performances across dozens of cities, each lasting 3.5 hours.
Hardy describes her own nights in the spotlight as “comparable to extreme physical exertion in stilettos every night”. Her headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the steps to the platform from the backstage area three floors below in the basement. I had to head up ahead of time for my cue so I could rest before I performed. One is perspiring the whole time but maintaining this fantasy that it’s simple and beautiful and magical.”
It could be this is where the appeal of the showgirl fantasy really is found. In the busyness of 2025 there is a craving for escapism. Who better to turn to than these performers, who have always personified make-believe, perfection and a world where nobody misses a mark.
