Following a three-decade run on the Las Vegas strip, the performers from the revue Jubilee! executed their last synchronised kick in 2016. The show, known for its elaborate costumes designed by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, came to an end due to dwindling audience numbers and unimpressed critics who described it as a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Currently, nearly ten years later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is experiencing a revival.
The King of Glitz
Referred to as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made dramatic stage sparkle his defining aesthetic, clothing everyone from screen legends to Madonna. Recently, a “barely-there” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, far exceeding its projected value, while a metallic beaded bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie created 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 were accustomed to”, he told a publication. “New stars are embracing a theatrical, more theatrical, attention-grabbing, grand statement.”
The Musical Comeback
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the heart of mainstream fashion in 2025 propelled by Taylor Swift. Earlier this year, the entertainment titan 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 perfect for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift has company. This year, showgirl references have been adopted by pop stars including Dua Lipa as they zoomed across arena stages in sparkles, revealing designs and ostrich feathers, spotlighted against theatrical sets. Lipa’s stylist a fashion expert mentioned in an interview with a style publication he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the 50s, the backup dancers fluttered giant plumed accessories.
Drawing from Tradition
These artists and other chart toppers also take inspiration from classic entertainment forms, including classic theater and chorus line references. The outcome are poles apart from the 1990s era pop style of revealing tops and utilitarian trousers, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that were popular earlier.
But some critics are on board with this glamour resurgence. A former performer, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word term is being “employed as an catch-all phrase including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even modern pop stars.”
The Coveted Retro Look
For gen Z and modern 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 translucent embellished dress created by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, another pop star paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn previously to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a trio of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among collectors.
“The showgirl aesthetic evoke a sense of longing for a bygone era of glitz,” says Su Kim Chung, a curator at the an academic institution, who documents the story of showgirls. “Today it is seen as a sort of ‘acceptable’ appeal because it has been updated. It has got all the sophistication, the rhinestones and the sparkle but without the bare skin.”
A Than Just Fashion: An Icon of Vegas
She says this figure are central to the imagery of Sin City. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was flanked by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas no longer has any traditional showgirl productions, the historian says they are still employed as an emblem of the city, appearing at gatherings and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a remaining icon of Las Vegas glitz and glamour,” Chung says.
The Appeal of Escape
Nancy Hardy says the transformative effect of a showgirl persona is part of the attraction. It’s something the singer alludes to in a latest docuseries that shows the off-camera action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting rehearsals, workouts and numerous concerts across dozens of cities, each going on for 3.5 hours.
Hardy explains her own showgirl performances as “similar to extreme physical exertion in heels every night”. Her feathered headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the stairs to the platform from the dressing rooms three floors below in the underground. I had to leave early for my entrance so I could catch my breath before I performed. One is working hard the whole time but creating this fantasy that it’s effortless and stunning and dreamlike.”
It could be this is where the fascination of the showgirl really resides. In the complexity of 2025 there is a desire for a break from reality. Is there anyone better to look to than showgirls, who have always embodied make-believe, perfection and a realm where no one makes a mistake.
