Following a 31-year run on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the showgirls from the revue Jubilee! gave one last synchronised kick in 2016. The extravaganza, famous for its intricate costumes designed by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to dwindling audience numbers and unimpressed reviewers who labeled it a spectacle “trapped in time”.
Today, roughly eight years later, the showgirl, or at least the showgirl style, is experiencing a revival.
A Sultan of Glitz
Known as the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made over-the-top showgirl glamour his defining aesthetic, outfitting everyone from Hollywood icons to music superstars. Recently, a “see-through” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, well over its projected value, while a shimmering fringed bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more appealing for the emerging artists who is looking for something other than what they were accustomed to”, he explained to a newspaper. “Today's artists are pushing toward a show-stopping, more spectacular, breathtaking, grand statement.”
A Mainstream Revival
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the heart of popular culture in 2025 thanks to a global pop icon. In the past few months, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The bedazzled bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and glittering headpiece were ideal for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer is part of a trend. This year, glamorous nods have been incorporated by singers including Dua Lipa as they zoomed across world tours in glitter, revealing designs and ostrich feathers, illuminated against camp sets. A top stylist a fashion expert told Vogue he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the mid-century, her performers wafted giant plumed accessories.
Pulling from History
These artists and other chart toppers also take inspiration from classic entertainment forms, including classic theater and chorus line references. The results are poles apart from the 1990s era pop style of crop tops and cargo pants, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that preceded this trend.
But not everyone are on board with this showgirl revival. Nancy Hardy, a ex- Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the 00s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word term is being “treated as an broad label encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly Taylor Swift.”
A Highly Sought-After Vintage Look
For gen Z and millennial stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a famous actress gave a nod to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the star wore a semi-sheer beaded dress made by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, a singer 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 vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a favorite among vintage enthusiasts.
“The showgirl aesthetic evoke nostalgia for a bygone era of glitz,” says a historian, a curator at the University of Nevada, who studies the story of showgirls. “Today it is seen as a sort of ‘acceptable’ appeal because it has been modified. It has got all the glamour, the crystals and the glitter but without the exposure.”
More Than Simply Fashion: An Symbol of the City
She says this figure are central to the identity of Sin City. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was surrounded by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-based productions, the historian says they are still employed as an symbol of the city, appearing at conventions and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a enduring symbol of Las Vegas glamour,” the expert says.
An Appeal of Illusion
Hardy says the complete change of a stage character is part of the attraction. This is a notion Swift references in a recent docuseries that captures the behind-the-scenes action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting preparations, training and countless shows across 21 countries, each lasting 3.5 hours.
Hardy recalls her own showgirl performances as “comparable to extreme physical exertion in stilettos every night”. Her headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the stairs to the performance area from the backstage area three floors below in the lower level. I had to head up ahead of time for my moment so I could rest before I made my entrance. One is sweating the whole time but maintaining this fantasy that it’s easy and gorgeous and ethereal.”
It could be this is where the fascination of the showgirl really resides. In the complexity of 2025 there is a desire for escapism. Is there anyone better to look to than these performers, who have always represented dreams, perfection and a universe where no one makes a mistake.
