Following a 31-year stint on the Las Vegas strip, the showgirls from the production Jubilee! executed their last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The show, known for its ornate costumes crafted by style icon Bob Mackie, ended its run due to falling audience numbers and disappointed reviewers who called it a spectacle “trapped in time”.
Now, roughly eight years later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl style, is back.
A Master of Glitz
Dubbed the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made theatrical showgirl glamour his defining aesthetic, outfitting everyone from Marilyn Monroe to Madonna. Recently, a “see-through” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, well over its initial estimate, while a shimmering fringed bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more enticing for the younger performer who is looking for something other than what they grew up with”, he explained to a newspaper. “Contemporary performers are pushing toward a glamorous, more theatrical, breathtaking, grand statement.”
The Pop Culture Comeback
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the epicenter of popular culture in 2025 propelled by a chart-topping superstar. Earlier this year, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The bedazzled bra and thong, plumed armbands and sparkly headpiece were tailor-made for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift isn't alone. This year, showgirl inspirations have been incorporated by music artists including Dua Lipa as they zoomed across arena stages in glitter, strategic openings and plumes, highlighted against theatrical sets. A top stylist a fashion expert mentioned in an interview with a style publication he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the mid-century, the backup dancers waved giant feathered fans.
Drawing from the Past
Lipa, Carpenter and other successful musicians also take inspiration from 19th-century entertainment forms, including burlesque and dance line references. The results are poles apart from the 90s Britney Spears era of short shirts and baggy pants, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that were popular earlier.
But some critics are enthusiastic with this glamour resurgence. An ex-showgirl, a former Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “treated as an umbrella term covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly Taylor Swift.”
The Coveted Vintage Look
For younger and modern stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become incredibly sought-after. In 2024, a style icon gave a nod to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the actor wore a see-through sequined dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, another pop star paid an significant price to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn at an awards show 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.
“This style bring about nostalgia for a bygone era of glitz,” says a historian, a curator at the an academic institution, who documents the story of showgirls. “Now it is considered a sort of ‘safe’ sexy because it has been updated. It has got all the elegance, the sparkles and the sparkle but without the bare skin.”
A Than Simply Fashion: An Symbol of Vegas
She says this figure are key to the identity of Vegas. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was flanked by two showgirls. While Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-centric productions, the historian says they are still featured as an logo of the city, being present at corporate events and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a lasting icon of Vegas glamour,” Chung says.
The Allure of Transformation
The former showgirl says the magical transformation of a showgirl is part of the appeal. It’s something Taylor Swift references in a recent docuseries that captures the backstage action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling practice sessions, training and numerous performances across dozens of cities, each running for 3.5 hours.
Hardy recalls her own stage routines as “similar to running a marathon in high heels every night”. Her feathered headdress was 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the stairs to the platform from the green rooms three floors below in the lower level. I had to start early for my cue so I could recover before I went on stage. You are working hard the whole time but crafting this image that it’s effortless and beautiful and dreamlike.”
It could be this is where the true allure of the showgirl fantasy really is found. In the busyness of 2025 there is a longing for a break from reality. Is there anyone better to emulate than such icons, who have always represented fantasy, perfection and a world where nobody misses a mark.
