After a 31-year stint on the Las Vegas strip, the showgirls from the spectacle Jubilee! took a final synchronised kick in 2016. The production, famous for its ornate costumes crafted by style icon Bob Mackie, came to an end due to falling audience numbers and critical commentators who labeled it a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Now, nearly ten years later, the showgirl, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is making a comeback.
The King of Sequins
Dubbed the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made over-the-top showgirl glamour his signature style, clothing everyone from screen legends to Madonna. Earlier this month, a “barely-there” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, well over its estimated price, while a shimmering tasseled bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more enticing for the new generation of stars who is desiring something other than what they knew from childhood”, he told a publication. “Today's artists are embracing a glamorous, more theatrical, show-stopping, entrance-making statement.”
The Mainstream Revival
It’s a look that glided all the way to the heart of mainstream fashion in 2025 thanks 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 bedazzled bra and thong, feathered armbands and glittering headpiece were tailor-made for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.
She isn't alone. This year, showgirl inspirations have been incorporated by singers including Dua Lipa as they danced across arena stages in sparkles, cut-outs and plumes, highlighted against theatrical sets. Her fashion curator Lorenzo Posocco mentioned in an interview with Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the 50s, her performers fluttered giant plumed accessories.
Pulling from the Past
These artists and other chart toppers also draw on historical entertainment forms, including burlesque and chorus line references. The results are vastly different from the 90s Britney Spears era of short shirts and utilitarian trousers, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that came before them.
But some critics are enthusiastic with this glamour resurgence. An ex-showgirl, a former Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the 00s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word term is being “used as an umbrella term encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly Taylor Swift.”
The Highly Sought-After Classic Look
For millennial and millennial stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become incredibly sought-after. In 2024, a style icon honored to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the star wore a semi-sheer embellished dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, a singer paid an private amount to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn at an awards show to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a collection of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among vintage enthusiasts.
“The showgirl aesthetic inspire a sense of longing for a bygone era of glitz,” says an archivist, a curator at the an academic institution, who researches the history of showgirls. “Currently it is viewed as a sort of ‘safe’ allure because it has been adapted. It has got all the sophistication, the sparkles and the sparkle but without the bare skin.”
A Than Just Style: An Icon of Vegas
She says this figure are key to the imagery of Sin City. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was flanked by two showgirls. While Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-centric productions, the historian says they are still employed as an emblem of the city, showing up at corporate events and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a enduring symbol of Las Vegas glamour,” she says.
An Allure of Transformation
Hardy says the complete change of a showgirl persona is part of the allure. This idea Taylor Swift alludes to in a new behind-the-scenes film that shows the backstage action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included intense practice sessions, workouts and 149 shows across multiple nations, each lasting 3.5 hours.
Hardy explains her own nights in the spotlight as “similar to running a marathon in high heels every night”. Her headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the steps to the stage from the green rooms three floors below in the basement. I had to leave early for my cue so I could rest before I performed. You are perspiring the whole time but crafting this illusion that it’s simple and gorgeous and ethereal.”
Perhaps this is where the fascination of the showgirl fantasy really is found. In the complexity of 2025 there is a longing for escapism. What better figure to emulate than these performers, who have always embodied fantasy, idealism and a world where no one misses a mark.
