Following a long-running run on the iconic Vegas strip, the dancers from the spectacle Jubilee! took a final perfectly timed kick in 2016. The extravaganza, famous for its ornate costumes created by style icon Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to falling audience numbers and critical commentators who labeled it a spectacle “trapped in time”.
Currently, roughly eight years later, showgirls, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is back.
A King of Glitz
Referred to as the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glitz his trademark look, outfitting everyone from screen legends to Madonna. Earlier this month, a “see-through” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, well over its projected value, while a silver and gold beaded bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more attractive 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 pushing toward a theatrical, more spectacular, breathtaking, grand statement.”
A Musical Comeback
It’s a look that glided all the way to the centre of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 largely due to Taylor Swift. In the past few months, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and sparkly headpiece were tailor-made for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift isn't alone. This year, showgirl inspirations have been embraced by pop stars including Sabrina Carpenter as they whizzed across world tours in glitter, revealing designs and feathers, highlighted against camp sets. Her fashion curator a fashion expert explained to Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the 50s, Lipa’s dancers fluttered giant plumed accessories.
Pulling from the Past
These artists and other hitmakers also reference classic performances, including vaudeville and dance line references. The outcome are poles apart from the late-century pop style of crop tops and cargo pants, and urban dance moves that were popular earlier.
But some critics are enthusiastic with this showgirl revival. A former performer, a ex- Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the 00s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “employed as an umbrella term encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even modern pop stars.”
The Coveted Vintage Style
For millennial and millennial stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a famous actress paid tribute to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the actress wore a see-through beaded dress made by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, Miley Cyrus paid an private amount to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn earlier in the year to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a series of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among fashion collectors.
“This style evoke nostalgia for a bygone era of glitz,” says a historian, an expert at the an academic institution, who documents the legacy of showgirls. “Today it is viewed as a sort of ‘acceptable’ appeal because it has been modified. It has got all the glamour, the crystals and the shine but without the bare skin.”
More Than Just Fashion: An Symbol of Las Vegas
The expert says showgirls are integral to the iconography of Sin City. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was flanked by two showgirls. While Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-centric productions, the historian says they are still used as an emblem of the city, appearing at conventions and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a remaining icon of Las Vegas spectacle,” she says.
An Appeal of Transformation
The former showgirl says the complete change of a showgirl is part of the appeal. It’s something the singer alludes to in a latest documentary series that captures the behind-the-scenes action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting preparations, training and 149 shows across 21 countries, each lasting 3.5 hours.
She recalls her own stage routines as “comparable to completing an endurance race in stilettos every night”. Her headpiece was 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the staircase to the platform from the dressing rooms three floors below in the basement. I had to leave early for my entrance so I could recover before I performed. You’re perspiring the whole time but maintaining this fantasy that it’s simple and beautiful and dreamlike.”
It could be this is where the appeal of the showgirl really lies. In the chaos of 2025 there is a craving for escapism. What better figure to look to than such icons, who have always personified dreams, perfection and a world where no one misses a mark.
