After a three-decade tenure on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the showgirls from the revue Jubilee! took a final choreographed kick in 2016. The show, known for its ornate costumes crafted by style icon Bob Mackie, ended its run due to declining audience numbers and disappointed commentators who called it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Today, roughly eight years later, showgirls, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is experiencing a revival.
A King of Sparkle
Dubbed the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glitz his defining aesthetic, outfitting everyone from Marilyn Monroe to Madonna. In a recent auction, a “barely-there” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, well over its estimated price, while a silver and gold fringed bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more appealing for the younger performer who is seeking something other than what they knew from childhood”, he stated in an interview with a publication. “Today's artists are pushing toward a glamorous, more spectacular, breathtaking, grand statement.”
The Mainstream Resurgence
It’s a look that glided all the way to the epicenter of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 thanks to Taylor Swift. Earlier this year, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The bedazzled bra and thong, plumed armbands and sparkly headpiece were ideal for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift has company. This year, glamorous nods have been embraced by pop stars including Sabrina Carpenter as they danced across arena stages in sequins, strategic openings and plumes, spotlighted against theatrical sets. A top stylist Lorenzo Posocco told Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the mid-century, the backup dancers fluttered giant plumed accessories.
Drawing from the Past
These artists and other chart toppers also draw on historical entertainment forms, including classic theater and chorus line references. The outcome are worlds away from the 1990s era pop style of crop tops and baggy pants, and street-style dance moves that were popular earlier.
But some critics are on board with this showgirl revival. Nancy Hardy, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word term is being “employed as an broad label including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly today's icons.”
A Coveted Classic Style
For gen Z and modern stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a famous actress paid tribute to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the actor wore a translucent sequined dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, another pop star paid an private amount to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn previously to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a collection of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among vintage enthusiasts.
“Showgirls evoke a sense of longing for a historical elegance,” says Su Kim Chung, a curator at the a Las Vegas university, who studies the legacy of showgirls. “Now it is viewed as a sort of ‘acceptable’ allure because it has been adapted. It has got all the elegance, the rhinestones and the sparkle but without the bare skin.”
A Than Just Style: An Icon of Vegas
The expert says this figure are central to the imagery of Vegas. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was accompanied by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-based productions, Chung says they are still employed as an emblem of the city, being present at gatherings and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a lasting symbol of Las Vegas glitz and glamour,” she says.
The Allure of Transformation
Hardy says the complete change of a stage character is part of the appeal. This idea the singer references in a new documentary series that shows the backstage action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling rehearsals, gym sessions and 149 shows across multiple nations, each lasting 3.5 hours.
The performer explains her own stage routines as “similar to extreme physical exertion in stilettos every night”. Her headpiece weighed 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the steps to the stage from the green rooms three floors below in the basement. I had to head up ahead of time for my entrance so I could recover before I went on stage. One is perspiring the whole time but creating this illusion that it’s easy and beautiful and dreamlike.”
Maybe this is where the fascination of the showgirl fantasy really lies. In the chaos of 2025 there is a longing for escapism. What better figure to look to than these performers, who have always embodied make-believe, idealism and a world where nobody makes a mistake.
