After a long-running run on the iconic Vegas strip, the dancers from the revue Jubilee! took a final choreographed kick in 2016. The show, famous for its ornate costumes designed by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, came to an end due to declining audience numbers and unimpressed reviewers who labeled it a spectacle “trapped in time”.
Now, almost a decade later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl style, is experiencing a revival.
A Master of Glitz
Dubbed the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glamour his signature style, dressing everyone from Hollywood icons to music superstars. Recently, a “naked” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, seven times its projected value, while a metallic beaded bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more enticing for the emerging artists who is looking for something other than what they knew from childhood”, he told a newspaper. “Contemporary performers are pushing toward a glamorous, more dramatic, attention-grabbing, grand statement.”
A Pop Culture Comeback
It’s a look that glided all the way to the centre of popular culture in 2025 thanks to a chart-topping superstar. Earlier this year, the entertainment titan 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 sparkly headpiece were perfect for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift is part of a trend. This year, showgirl inspirations have been adopted by music artists including Miley Cyrus as they danced across world tours in sequins, cut-outs and ostrich feathers, illuminated against overstated sets. A top stylist her creative director mentioned in an interview with a style publication he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the 50s, the backup dancers fluttered giant plumed accessories.
Pulling from History
Lipa, Carpenter and other chart toppers also draw on classic performances, including classic theater and chorus line references. The results are poles apart from the 90s Britney Spears era of crop tops and utilitarian trousers, and urban dance moves that came before them.
But some critics are enthusiastic with this showgirl renaissance. Nancy Hardy, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the 00s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “treated as an catch-all phrase encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently modern pop stars.”
A Coveted Vintage Look
For millennial and modern stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, Zendaya gave a nod to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the actor wore a see-through embellished dress made by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, a singer paid an significant price to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn earlier in the year to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a trio of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a favorite among fashion collectors.
“Showgirls bring about fond memories for a past glamour,” says a historian, an expert at the an academic institution, who documents the story of showgirls. “Now it is seen as a sort of ‘toned-down’ sexy because it has been updated. It has got all the glamour, the rhinestones and the sparkle but without the bare skin.”
A Than Simply Fashion: An Icon of the City
The expert says the showgirl image are key to the iconography of Sin City. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was surrounded by two showgirls. While Las Vegas does not host any showgirl-based productions, Jung says they are still used as an emblem of the city, showing up at gatherings and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a lasting figure of Las Vegas glamour,” Chung says.
The Appeal of Escape
Nancy Hardy says the magical transformation of a showgirl is part of the allure. This is a notion the singer references in a latest documentary series that documents the off-camera action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling preparations, training and countless shows across multiple nations, each running for 3.5 hours.
She explains her own showgirl performances as “similar to running a marathon in heels every night”. Her headpiece tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the steps to the stage from the green rooms three floors below in the lower level. I had to start early for my entrance so I could recover before I went on stage. One is sweating the whole time but creating this image that it’s simple and stunning and magical.”
It could be this is where the appeal of the showgirl fantasy really lies. In the busyness of 2025 there is a craving for a break from reality. What better figure to look to than showgirls, who have always represented dreams, perfection and a universe where no one makes a mistake.
