After a 31-year run on the Las Vegas strip, the performers from the production Jubilee! gave one last choreographed kick in 2016. The show, famous for its ornate costumes designed by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, ended its run due to falling audience numbers and disappointed reviewers who labeled it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Today, almost a decade later, the showgirl, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is making a comeback.
The Sultan of Sparkle
Dubbed the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made over-the-top showgirl glitz his trademark look, outfitting everyone from Hollywood icons to music superstars. Recently, a “naked” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, far exceeding its projected value, while a silver and gold tasseled bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more enticing for the younger performer who is seeking something other than what they knew from childhood”, he told a media outlet. “Contemporary performers are embracing a theatrical, more dramatic, show-stopping, entrance-making statement.”
The Mainstream Resurgence
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the epicenter of mainstream fashion in 2025 largely due to a global pop icon. Recently, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and glittering headpiece were tailor-made for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift has company. This year, showgirl inspirations have been adopted by music artists including Miley Cyrus as they whizzed across concert platforms in sparkles, revealing designs and feathers, highlighted against overstated sets. Lipa’s stylist Lorenzo Posocco mentioned in an interview with Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the 50s, the backup dancers fluttered giant plumed accessories.
Drawing from Tradition
These artists and other chart toppers also draw on 19th-century entertainment forms, including vaudeville and ensemble references. The outcome are vastly different from the 90s Britney Spears era of crop tops and utilitarian trousers, and urban dance moves that preceded this trend.
But not everyone are enthusiastic with this glamour resurgence. An ex-showgirl, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the 00s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “treated as an broad label including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even Taylor Swift.”
The Coveted Classic Look
For millennial and modern stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a famous actress gave a nod to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actor wore a semi-sheer embellished dress created by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he designed 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, the singer wore a series of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among collectors.
“This style bring about a sense of longing for a bygone era of glitz,” says an archivist, a curator at the an academic institution, who documents the history of showgirls. “Today it is viewed as a sort of ‘toned-down’ appeal because it has been modified. It has got all the glamour, the rhinestones and the glitter but without the nudity.”
A Than Just Style: An Icon of Vegas
The expert says showgirls are integral to the identity of Las Vegas. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was surrounded by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas does not host any showgirl-based productions, Jung says they are still employed as an symbol of the city, being present at conventions and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a remaining icon of Las Vegas spectacle,” the expert says.
An Appeal of Illusion
Hardy says the transformative effect of a showgirl is part of the appeal. This idea the singer alludes to in a latest documentary series that documents the backstage action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling practice sessions, workouts and countless performances across multiple nations, each lasting 3.5 hours.
Hardy explains her own showgirl performances as “comparable to extreme physical exertion in stilettos every night”. Her headpiece was 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the staircase to the performance area from the dressing rooms three floors below in the basement. I had to leave early for my entrance so I could rest before I performed. One is sweating the whole time but crafting this illusion that it’s simple and beautiful and magical.”
Maybe this is where the appeal of the showgirl fantasy really is found. In the busyness of 2025 there is a desire for fantasy. Who better to turn to than showgirls, who have always embodied dreams, flawlessness and a universe where no one makes a mistake.
