Following a long-running run on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the dancers from the spectacle Jubilee! executed their last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The extravaganza, known for its ornate costumes crafted by style icon Bob Mackie, ended its run due to falling audience numbers and critical critics who called it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Today, almost a decade later, showgirls, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is back.
A Sultan of Sequins
Known as the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glamour his trademark look, dressing everyone from Hollywood icons to music superstars. In a recent auction, a “barely-there” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, seven times its projected value, while a shimmering beaded bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more enticing for the new generation of stars who is looking for something other than what they knew from childhood”, he told a newspaper. “New stars are striving for a glamorous, more theatrical, breathtaking, grand statement.”
The Mainstream Comeback
It’s a look that glided all the way to the epicenter of mainstream fashion in 2025 largely due to a chart-topping superstar. Earlier this year, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The crystal-covered bra and thong, plumed armbands and shimmering headpiece were tailor-made for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift isn't alone. This year, showgirl inspirations have been embraced by music artists including Dua Lipa as they zoomed across concert platforms in sequins, revealing designs and feathers, spotlighted against theatrical sets. Lipa’s stylist Lorenzo Posocco explained to a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the 1950s, the backup dancers wafted giant plumed accessories.
Pulling from History
Lipa, Carpenter and other hitmakers also draw on classic entertainment forms, including classic theater and dance line references. The outcome are vastly different from the 1990s era teen pop of revealing tops and baggy pants, and street-style dance moves that came before them.
But not everyone are convinced with this showgirl renaissance. An ex-showgirl, a former Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the 00s says the trend is “confusing”. 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 today's icons.”
The Coveted Retro Look
For gen Z and modern stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, Zendaya paid tribute to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the actress wore a translucent embellished dress created by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, another pop star paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn previously to perform at the Grammys. In September, Sabrina Carpenter wore a trio of retro 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 bygone era of glitz,” says a historian, head of special collections at the an academic institution, who researches the legacy of showgirls. “Today it is viewed as a sort of ‘safe’ appeal because it has been adapted. It has got all the elegance, the rhinestones and the sparkle but without the exposure.”
More Than Simply Style: An Icon of Las Vegas
Chung says showgirls are central to the iconography of Sin City. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was surrounded by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas does not host any showgirl-centric productions, Chung says they are still featured as an emblem of the city, showing up at conventions and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a enduring icon of Vegas glitz and glamour,” she says.
An Appeal of Escape
Nancy Hardy says the complete change of a showgirl is part of the appeal. It’s something Taylor Swift alludes to in a latest behind-the-scenes film that captures the behind-the-scenes action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included intense practice sessions, workouts and countless concerts across dozens of cities, each running for 3.5 hours.
Hardy explains her own stage routines as “similar to running a marathon in heels every night”. Her headpiece weighed 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the steps to the performance area from the green rooms three floors below in the lower level. I had to start early for my moment so I could recover before I performed. You’re sweating the whole time but maintaining this image that it’s easy and beautiful and magical.”
Maybe this is where the fascination of the showgirl fantasy really is found. In the complexity of 2025 there is a longing for escapism. Who better to turn to than showgirls, who have always represented make-believe, perfection and a world where nobody falters.
