Following a three-decade tenure on the Las Vegas strip, the performers from the spectacle Jubilee! executed their last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The show, renowned for its elaborate costumes designed by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, ended its run due to falling audience numbers and unimpressed critics who described it as a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Now, roughly eight years later, the showgirl persona, or at least the showgirl style, is making a comeback.
A Master of Glitz
Dubbed the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glamour his signature style, outfitting everyone from screen legends to Madonna. Earlier this month, a “barely-there” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, seven times its estimated price, while a silver and gold tasseled bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more attractive for the emerging artists who is desiring something other than what they grew up with”, he stated in an interview with a publication. “Contemporary performers are pushing toward a show-stopping, more theatrical, breathtaking, entrance-making statement.”
The Musical Revival
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the centre of popular culture in 2025 largely due to Taylor Swift. Recently, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, plumed armbands and sparkly headpiece were tailor-made for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.
She isn't alone. This year, glamorous nods have been embraced by music artists including Sabrina Carpenter as they zoomed across world tours in sequins, strategic openings and feathers, spotlighted against camp sets. A top stylist her creative director explained to a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the mid-century, her performers fluttered giant plumed accessories.
Pulling from the Past
Modern stars and other successful musicians also draw on historical entertainment forms, including burlesque and ensemble references. The final look are worlds away from the 1990s era Britney Spears era of crop tops and utilitarian trousers, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that preceded this trend.
But some critics are enthusiastic with this glamour resurgence. Nancy Hardy, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the early 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “used as an broad label including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently modern pop stars.”
A Highly Sought-After Classic Style
For millennial and modern stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become incredibly sought-after. In 2024, a famous actress honored to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actress wore a translucent sequined dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, Miley Cyrus paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn previously to perform at the Grammys. In September, Sabrina Carpenter wore a collection of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among fashion collectors.
“Showgirls inspire fond memories for a historical elegance,” says an archivist, an expert at the University of Nevada, who studies the legacy of showgirls. “Today it is viewed as a sort of ‘safe’ sexy because it has been adapted. It has got all the elegance, the sparkles and the glitter but without the bare skin.”
More Than Simply Fashion: An Icon of Vegas
She says this figure are integral to the identity of Las Vegas. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was accompanied by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas no longer has any traditional showgirl productions, Jung says they are still featured as an emblem of the city, appearing at gatherings and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a remaining figure of Vegas glitz and glamour,” Chung says.
An Appeal of Illusion
The former showgirl says the transformative effect of a showgirl is part of the appeal. It’s something the singer references in a new docuseries that documents the backstage action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting preparations, training and numerous performances across 21 countries, each going on for 3.5 hours.
Hardy recalls her own showgirl performances as “comparable to extreme physical exertion in stilettos every night”. Her headpiece weighed 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the stairs to the stage from the green rooms three floors below in the basement. I had to leave early for my entrance so I could rest before I went on stage. One is perspiring the whole time but crafting this fantasy that it’s easy and gorgeous and dreamlike.”
Perhaps this is where the true allure of the showgirl fantasy really resides. In the busyness of 2025 there is a craving for fantasy. What better figure to look to than such icons, who have always embodied fantasy, perfection and a world where no one makes a mistake.
