After a long-running tenure on the Las Vegas strip, the dancers from the production Jubilee! took a final perfectly timed kick in 2016. The production, famous for its elaborate costumes created by style icon Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to falling audience numbers and critical commentators who labeled it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Now, roughly eight years later, the showgirl persona, or at least the showgirl style, is making a comeback.
The Master of Sparkle
Referred to as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made over-the-top showgirl glamour his trademark look, dressing everyone from Hollywood icons to pop royalty. In a recent auction, a “barely-there” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, far exceeding its projected value, while a metallic beaded bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more attractive for the emerging artists who is desiring something other than what they grew up with”, he stated in an interview with a publication. “Contemporary performers are striving for a glamorous, more dramatic, breathtaking, grand statement.”
A Pop Culture Comeback
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the centre of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 largely due to Taylor Swift. Recently, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The crystal-covered bra and thong, plumed armbands and sparkly headpiece were tailor-made for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
She is part of a trend. This year, glamorous nods have been incorporated by singers including Miley Cyrus as they whizzed across concert platforms in sequins, strategic openings and plumes, highlighted against theatrical sets. A top stylist her creative director told Vogue he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the 1950s, Lipa’s dancers waved giant feathered fans.
Drawing from History
These artists and other hitmakers also take inspiration from historical entertainment forms, including vaudeville and ensemble references. The final look are worlds away from the 90s pop style of crop tops and utilitarian trousers, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that were popular earlier.
But not everyone are convinced with this showgirl revival. Nancy Hardy, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the early 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “used as an umbrella term covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently today's icons.”
The Coveted Classic Style
For gen Z and millennial stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, Zendaya paid tribute to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the star wore a semi-sheer sequined dress created by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, a singer paid an significant price to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn at an awards show to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a collection of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among collectors.
“This style bring about fond memories for a historical elegance,” says an archivist, an expert at the a Las Vegas university, who studies the history of showgirls. “Today it is considered a sort of ‘toned-down’ sexy because it has been adapted. It has got all the sophistication, the sparkles and the glitter but without the exposure.”
More Than Simply Style: An Icon of Las Vegas
The expert says this figure are integral to the iconography of Vegas. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was flanked by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas does not host any traditional showgirl productions, Jung says they are still employed as an symbol of the city, being present at gatherings and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a remaining symbol of Las Vegas spectacle,” Chung says.
An Appeal of Illusion
Nancy Hardy says the transformative effect of a stage character is part of the allure. It’s something Swift references in a recent docuseries that shows the behind-the-scenes action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting practice sessions, training and 149 performances across multiple nations, each running for 3.5 hours.
Hardy describes her own stage routines as “comparable to extreme physical exertion in high heels every night”. Her feathered headdress tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the steps to the platform from the green rooms three floors below in the lower level. I had to start early for my moment so I could recover before I made my entrance. You’re sweating the whole time but maintaining this image that it’s effortless and stunning and dreamlike.”
Maybe this is where the appeal of the showgirl really is found. In the chaos of 2025 there is a longing for fantasy. Who better to look to than such icons, who have always personified make-believe, idealism and a world where nobody misses a mark.
