Following a long-running tenure on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the performers from the revue Jubilee! took a final choreographed kick in 2016. The show, known for its elaborate costumes designed by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to declining audience numbers and critical critics who labeled it a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Currently, almost a decade later, the showgirl persona, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is back.
The Master of Sequins
Referred to as the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made over-the-top showgirl glamour his signature style, clothing everyone from Hollywood icons to music superstars. Earlier this month, a “see-through” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, well over its initial estimate, while a shimmering beaded bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more attractive for the emerging artists who is desiring something other than what they knew from childhood”, he explained to a media outlet. “Contemporary performers are embracing a glamorous, more dramatic, attention-grabbing, grand statement.”
The Mainstream Revival
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the epicenter of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 largely due to Taylor Swift. In the past few months, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The crystal-covered bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and sparkly headpiece were perfect for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift has company. This year, glamorous nods have been incorporated by pop stars including Dua Lipa as they whizzed across concert platforms in glitter, strategic openings and ostrich feathers, spotlighted against theatrical sets. Lipa’s stylist Lorenzo Posocco told Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the 50s, the backup dancers waved giant plumed accessories.
Pulling from the Past
Modern stars and other chart toppers also take inspiration from 19th-century performances, including vaudeville and dance line references. The results are vastly different from the 90s pop style of short shirts and baggy pants, and urban dance moves that preceded this trend.
But not everyone are enthusiastic with this glamour resurgence. An ex-showgirl, a former Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “employed as an broad label including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly modern pop stars.”
The Coveted Classic Style
For millennial and modern stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, Zendaya gave a nod to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the actor wore a semi-sheer beaded dress made by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, a singer paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn previously to perform at the Grammys. In September, the singer wore a trio of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among vintage enthusiasts.
“The showgirl aesthetic bring about nostalgia for a historical elegance,” says an archivist, an expert at the University of Nevada, who documents the legacy of showgirls. “Today it is considered a sort of ‘toned-down’ appeal because it has been adapted. It has got all the glamour, the sparkles and the shine but without the exposure.”
A Than Simply Style: An Symbol of Las Vegas
Chung says this figure are integral to the iconography of Sin City. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was flanked by two showgirls. While Las Vegas does not host any showgirl-centric productions, the historian says they are still employed as an logo of the city, appearing at gatherings and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a lasting icon of Las Vegas glamour,” Chung says.
An Appeal of Illusion
Hardy says the magical transformation of a showgirl is part of the appeal. This is a notion the singer references in a recent docuseries that documents the behind-the-scenes action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting rehearsals, workouts and numerous performances across 21 countries, each lasting 3.5 hours.
The performer recalls her own nights in the spotlight as “similar to extreme physical exertion in heels every night”. Her headpiece weighed 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the stairs to the platform from the dressing rooms three floors below in the basement. I had to leave early for my cue so I could recover before I went on stage. You are perspiring the whole time but maintaining this illusion that it’s easy and gorgeous and ethereal.”
It could be this is where the appeal of the showgirl really resides. In the chaos of 2025 there is a desire for fantasy. Who better to look to than showgirls, who have always personified fantasy, idealism and a realm where nobody falters.
