After a three-decade run on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the dancers from the production Jubilee! executed their last perfectly timed 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 unimpressed commentators who called it a spectacle “trapped in time”.
Now, nearly ten years later, the showgirl persona, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is experiencing a revival.
The King of Sequins
Known as the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made over-the-top showgirl glamour his trademark look, clothing everyone from Hollywood icons to music superstars. Earlier this month, a “see-through” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, far exceeding its projected value, while a shimmering tasseled bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more enticing for the new generation of stars who is desiring something other than what they knew from childhood”, he explained to a publication. “Contemporary performers are striving for a theatrical, more dramatic, show-stopping, grand statement.”
The Pop Culture Revival
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the heart of popular culture in 2025 largely due to a global pop icon. Recently, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, feathered armbands and glittering headpiece were ideal for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer has company. This year, showgirl inspirations have been embraced by music artists including Miley Cyrus as they whizzed across concert platforms in sparkles, strategic openings and feathers, highlighted against camp sets. Lipa’s stylist Lorenzo Posocco told a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the 1950s, Lipa’s dancers waved giant plumed accessories.
Pulling from the Past
Lipa, Carpenter and other hitmakers also draw on classic entertainment forms, including burlesque and ensemble references. The outcome are worlds away from the 1990s era Britney Spears era of revealing tops and baggy pants, and street-style dance moves that came before them.
But certain observers are on board with this glamour resurgence. An ex-showgirl, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the 2000s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “used as an umbrella term covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly today's icons.”
A Highly Sought-After Vintage Style
For younger and modern stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, Zendaya gave a nod to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the star wore a translucent sequined dress created by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, a singer paid an private amount to buy the Mackie beaded 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 fashion collectors.
“The showgirl aesthetic bring about a sense of longing for a bygone era of glitz,” says Su Kim Chung, a curator at the a Las Vegas university, who researches the legacy of showgirls. “Currently it is viewed as a sort of ‘safe’ sexy because it has been modified. It has got all the glamour, the sparkles and the glitter but without the nudity.”
More Than Just Fashion: An Symbol of Vegas
She says the showgirl image are key to the identity of Sin City. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was surrounded by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas does not host any showgirl-centric productions, the historian says they are still employed as an symbol of the city, showing up at corporate events and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a enduring figure of Vegas glamour,” she says.
An Allure of Escape
Nancy Hardy says the magical transformation of a showgirl persona is part of the attraction. This is a notion Taylor Swift hints at in a new behind-the-scenes film that captures the off-camera action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included intense rehearsals, workouts and countless concerts across multiple nations, each lasting 3.5 hours.
The performer explains her own stage routines as “comparable to running a marathon in high heels every night”. Her headpiece weighed 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the steps to the platform from the backstage area three floors below in the basement. I had to leave early for my entrance so I could recover before I went on stage. You are perspiring the whole time but creating this fantasy that it’s simple and beautiful and magical.”
It could be this is where the true allure of the showgirl really resides. In the busyness of 2025 there is a craving for escapism. Is there anyone better to turn to than such icons, who have always represented make-believe, idealism and a world where no one misses a mark.
