After a three-decade stint on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the performers from the production Jubilee! took a final choreographed kick in 2016. The production, renowned for its ornate costumes designed by style icon Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to declining audience numbers and critical critics who described it as a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Now, roughly eight years later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl style, is back.
The Sultan of Sparkle
Referred to as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made theatrical stage sparkle his trademark look, clothing everyone from Marilyn Monroe to Madonna. Earlier this month, a “barely-there” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, seven times its initial estimate, while a silver and gold fringed bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more appealing for the emerging artists who is seeking something other than what they grew up with”, he stated in an interview with a media outlet. “New stars are embracing a glamorous, more dramatic, attention-grabbing, grand statement.”
A Mainstream Resurgence
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the epicenter of popular culture in 2025 propelled by a global pop icon. Earlier this year, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The bedazzled bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and sparkly headpiece were tailor-made for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift is part of a trend. This year, glamorous nods have been incorporated by music artists including Sabrina Carpenter as they zoomed across concert platforms in sparkles, strategic openings and plumes, spotlighted against camp sets. Lipa’s stylist her creative director explained to a style publication he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the 1950s, the backup dancers fluttered giant plumed accessories.
Pulling from History
Modern stars and other successful musicians also take inspiration from historical entertainment forms, including classic theater and dance line references. The final look are vastly different from the 90s pop style of revealing tops and utilitarian trousers, and street-style dance moves that preceded this trend.
But some critics are enthusiastic with this showgirl revival. Nancy Hardy, a former Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the early 2000s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “treated as an umbrella term encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently modern pop stars.”
A Coveted Classic Look
For younger and millennial stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become incredibly sought-after. In 2024, a famous actress paid tribute to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the actor wore a see-through beaded dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, a singer paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn earlier in the year to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a collection of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among vintage enthusiasts.
“Showgirls inspire nostalgia for a bygone era of glitz,” says an archivist, head of special collections at the University of Nevada, who documents the story of showgirls. “Now it is viewed as a sort of ‘acceptable’ sexy because it has been adapted. It has got all the elegance, the rhinestones and the glitter but without the bare skin.”
A Than Simply Fashion: An Symbol of the City
Chung says the showgirl image are central to the iconography of Las Vegas. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was surrounded by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-based productions, Jung says they are still employed as an logo of the city, appearing at gatherings and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a remaining figure of Vegas spectacle,” the expert says.
An Appeal of Escape
Nancy Hardy says the magical transformation of a showgirl is part of the attraction. It’s something Taylor Swift references in a latest docuseries that captures the backstage action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling preparations, gym sessions and numerous performances across multiple nations, each running for 3.5 hours.
She describes her own nights in the spotlight as “similar to running a marathon in heels every night”. Her headpiece was 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the stairs to the performance area from the green rooms three floors below in the lower level. I had to head up ahead of time for my cue so I could catch my breath before I made my entrance. You’re working hard the whole time but maintaining this fantasy that it’s effortless and beautiful and dreamlike.”
Perhaps this is where the appeal of the showgirl fantasy really is found. In the busyness of 2025 there is a craving for escapism. Is there anyone better to look to than such icons, who have always embodied make-believe, idealism and a realm where nobody makes a mistake.
