After a long-running stint on the Las Vegas strip, the performers from the production Jubilee! took a final synchronised kick in 2016. The production, renowned for its elaborate costumes designed by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to dwindling audience numbers and disappointed reviewers who labeled it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Today, nearly ten years later, showgirls, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is making a comeback.
A Master of Sparkle
Referred to as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made dramatic stage sparkle his defining aesthetic, clothing everyone from screen legends to Madonna. Earlier this month, a “barely-there” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, seven times its estimated price, while a silver and gold fringed bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more appealing for the emerging artists who is looking for something other than what they knew from childhood”, he explained to a publication. “Contemporary performers are striving for a show-stopping, more dramatic, show-stopping, memorable statement.”
The Mainstream Comeback
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the epicenter of mainstream fashion in 2025 largely due to Taylor Swift. In the past few months, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The bedazzled bra and thong, feathered armbands and glittering headpiece were tailor-made for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift isn't alone. This year, showgirl inspirations have been incorporated by music artists including Miley Cyrus as they zoomed across world tours in sparkles, revealing designs and feathers, spotlighted against theatrical sets. A top stylist her creative director mentioned in an interview with a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the 50s, her performers fluttered giant plumed accessories.
Drawing from Tradition
These artists and other hitmakers also take inspiration from historical entertainment forms, including classic theater and chorus line references. The final look are vastly different from the 1990s era pop style of crop tops and baggy pants, and urban dance moves that preceded this trend.
But certain observers are convinced with this glamour resurgence. An ex-showgirl, a former Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the early 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “treated as an broad label 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 extremely desirable. In 2024, Zendaya honored to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the actor wore a semi-sheer sequined dress made by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, Miley Cyrus paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn earlier in the year to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a collection of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among collectors.
“The showgirl aesthetic bring about nostalgia for a bygone era of glitz,” says Su Kim Chung, head of special collections at the University of Nevada, who documents the story of showgirls. “Currently it is considered a sort of ‘safe’ sexy because it has been adapted. It has got all the glamour, the rhinestones and the shine but without the bare skin.”
More Than Just Style: An Symbol of Las Vegas
Chung says showgirls are key to the imagery of Las Vegas. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was accompanied by two showgirls. While Las Vegas does not host any showgirl-centric productions, Chung says they are still used as an symbol of the city, appearing at corporate events and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a lasting icon of Vegas glitz and glamour,” the expert says.
The Allure of Illusion
Nancy Hardy says the transformative effect of a showgirl is part of the attraction. This idea the singer references in a latest behind-the-scenes film that documents the behind-the-scenes action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included intense rehearsals, training and 149 concerts across dozens of cities, each running for 3.5 hours.
She explains her own stage routines as “comparable to running a marathon in high heels every night”. Her feathered headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the staircase to the stage from the green rooms three floors below in the underground. I had to leave early for my entrance so I could catch my breath before I made my entrance. You are perspiring the whole time but crafting this fantasy that it’s effortless and beautiful and magical.”
Maybe this is where the true allure of the showgirl really is found. In the busyness of 2025 there is a longing for fantasy. Who better to look to than showgirls, who have always personified fantasy, perfection and a world where nobody misses a mark.
