After a long-running tenure on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the dancers from the spectacle Jubilee! gave one last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The show, renowned for its intricate costumes crafted by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, ended its run due to declining audience numbers and disappointed commentators who called it a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Today, almost a decade later, the showgirl persona, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is experiencing a revival.
The Master of Glitz
Referred to as the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made over-the-top showgirl glamour his trademark look, dressing everyone from screen legends to Madonna. Recently, a “naked” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, well over its projected value, while a shimmering beaded bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more appealing for the new generation of stars who is looking for something other than what they knew from childhood”, he told a publication. “Today's artists are embracing a glamorous, more theatrical, show-stopping, memorable statement.”
The Musical Revival
It’s a look that glided all the way to the centre of mainstream fashion in 2025 largely due to a chart-topping superstar. In the past few months, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, plumed armbands and glittering headpiece were ideal for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift has company. This year, showgirl references have been embraced by pop stars including Miley Cyrus as they danced across arena stages in glitter, cut-outs and plumes, highlighted against overstated sets. Lipa’s stylist her creative director mentioned in an interview with a style publication he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the mid-century, Lipa’s dancers fluttered giant plumed accessories.
Pulling from History
Modern stars and other successful musicians also reference classic entertainment forms, including burlesque and ensemble references. The outcome are poles apart from the 90s Britney Spears era of short shirts and baggy pants, and street-style dance moves that came before them.
But some critics are on board with this glamour resurgence. A former performer, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the early 2000s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “treated as an broad label including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently Taylor Swift.”
The Coveted Vintage Style
For younger and millennial stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a famous actress honored to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actress wore a semi-sheer sequined dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, another pop star paid an significant price to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn at an awards show to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a trio of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a favorite among fashion collectors.
“This style bring about nostalgia for a historical elegance,” says an archivist, an expert at the University of Nevada, who researches the history of showgirls. “Today it is viewed as a sort of ‘toned-down’ appeal because it has been updated. It has got all the sophistication, the rhinestones and the sparkle but without the nudity.”
More Than Just Style: An Icon of the City
Chung says this figure are integral to the identity of Las Vegas. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was surrounded by two showgirls. While Las Vegas does not host any traditional showgirl productions, Chung says they are still employed as an logo of the city, being present at conventions and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a lasting icon of Vegas glitz and glamour,” she says.
An Appeal of Escape
Nancy Hardy says the magical transformation of a stage character is part of the appeal. This idea the singer alludes to in a recent docuseries that shows the backstage action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting preparations, workouts and numerous concerts across multiple nations, each lasting 3.5 hours.
The performer recalls her own stage routines as “similar to completing an endurance race in high heels every night”. Her feathered headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the staircase to the platform from the green rooms three floors below in the underground. I had to start early for my cue so I could recover before I made my entrance. You are perspiring the whole time but creating this image that it’s easy and beautiful and dreamlike.”
Maybe this is where the appeal of the showgirl really lies. In the complexity of 2025 there is a desire for fantasy. Is there anyone better to turn to than such icons, who have always personified make-believe, perfection and a world where no one makes a mistake.
