Following a long-running run on the Las Vegas strip, the showgirls from the spectacle Jubilee! executed their last choreographed kick in 2016. The show, renowned for its intricate costumes designed by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to dwindling audience numbers and critical critics who labeled it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Currently, nearly ten years later, the showgirl persona, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is experiencing a revival.
A Master of Sequins
Dubbed the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made over-the-top showgirl glamour his signature style, clothing everyone from Marilyn Monroe to pop royalty. Earlier this month, a “naked” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, seven times its projected value, while a silver and gold fringed bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more enticing for the emerging artists who is seeking something other than what they grew up with”, he explained to a media outlet. “Today's artists are striving for a show-stopping, more dramatic, breathtaking, memorable statement.”
A Pop Culture Revival
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the centre of mainstream fashion in 2025 largely due to a global pop icon. Earlier this year, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The bedazzled bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and glittering headpiece were ideal for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
She is part of a trend. This year, showgirl references have been adopted by pop stars including Sabrina Carpenter as they whizzed across arena stages in sparkles, strategic openings and ostrich feathers, highlighted against camp sets. A top stylist Lorenzo Posocco explained to Vogue he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the 1950s, her performers wafted giant ostrich feather fans.
Drawing from Tradition
Modern stars and other chart toppers also take inspiration from historical entertainment forms, including vaudeville and ensemble references. The results are poles apart from the late-century Britney Spears era of revealing tops and utilitarian trousers, and urban dance moves that came before them.
But not everyone are on board with this showgirl revival. Nancy Hardy, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the 2000s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “employed as an umbrella term including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently modern pop stars.”
The Highly Sought-After Vintage Style
For gen Z and millennial stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become incredibly sought-after. In 2024, a famous actress paid tribute to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the actor wore a see-through sequined dress made by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, Miley Cyrus paid an private amount to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn previously to perform at the Grammys. In September, Sabrina Carpenter wore a trio of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among fashion collectors.
“This style inspire fond memories for a past glamour,” says a historian, an expert at the University of Nevada, who studies the history of showgirls. “Today it is viewed as a sort of ‘acceptable’ appeal because it has been adapted. It has got all the sophistication, the sparkles and the glitter but without the exposure.”
More Than Just Fashion: An Symbol of Las Vegas
She says this figure are central to the iconography of Vegas. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was surrounded by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-centric productions, Chung says they are still employed as an logo of the city, appearing at conventions and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a enduring icon of Vegas spectacle,” Chung says.
The Appeal of Illusion
Hardy says the complete change of a showgirl persona is part of the appeal. It’s something Taylor Swift alludes to in a new documentary series that shows the off-camera action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting preparations, training and 149 shows across 21 countries, each going on for 3.5 hours.
The performer explains her own showgirl performances as “comparable to extreme physical exertion in heels every night”. Her headpiece tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the staircase to the platform 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. You’re perspiring the whole time but crafting this image that it’s easy and stunning and dreamlike.”
Perhaps this is where the true allure of the showgirl fantasy really is found. In the complexity of 2025 there is a craving for escapism. Who better to turn to than such icons, who have always embodied dreams, flawlessness and a universe where no one misses a mark.
