Following a 31-year tenure on the Las Vegas strip, the showgirls from the revue Jubilee! gave one last synchronised kick in 2016. The extravaganza, renowned for its ornate costumes designed by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, ended its run due to falling audience numbers and disappointed critics who called it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Now, almost a decade later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl style, is experiencing a revival.
The Master of Glitz
Known as the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glamour his signature style, dressing everyone from screen legends to Madonna. Recently, a “naked” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, well over its estimated price, while a metallic beaded bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more enticing for the emerging artists who is looking for something other than what they knew from childhood”, he explained to a media outlet. “New stars are pushing toward a show-stopping, more spectacular, show-stopping, grand statement.”
The Pop Culture Comeback
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the centre of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 largely due to Taylor Swift. Earlier this year, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The bedazzled bra and thong, plumed armbands and sparkly headpiece were tailor-made for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer is part of a trend. This year, showgirl inspirations have been embraced by singers including Dua Lipa as they danced across concert platforms in sequins, cut-outs and plumes, illuminated against camp sets. A top stylist a fashion expert told Vogue he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the 1950s, Lipa’s dancers fluttered giant feathered fans.
Pulling from the Past
Lipa, Carpenter and other successful musicians also reference 19th-century entertainment forms, including classic theater and ensemble references. The final look are vastly different from the 1990s era pop style of crop tops and baggy pants, and urban dance moves that came before them.
But not everyone are convinced with this showgirl revival. Nancy Hardy, a ex- Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the 00s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “used as an umbrella term covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly Taylor Swift.”
A Highly Sought-After Classic Style
For younger and young adult stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a famous actress honored to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the actor wore a see-through sequined dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, 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, Sabrina Carpenter wore a collection of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among fashion collectors.
“The showgirl aesthetic bring about a sense of longing for a bygone era of glitz,” says an archivist, head of special collections at the a Las Vegas university, who studies the legacy of showgirls. “Today it is considered a sort of ‘acceptable’ appeal because it has been modified. It has got all the elegance, the sparkles and the sparkle but without the bare skin.”
A Than Just Fashion: An Symbol of Vegas
Chung says this figure are key to the iconography of Vegas. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was surrounded by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-centric productions, Chung says they are still featured as an symbol of the city, appearing at corporate events and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a lasting symbol of Vegas spectacle,” Chung says.
The Allure of Escape
Nancy Hardy says the complete change of a showgirl is part of the allure. It’s something the singer hints at in a recent docuseries that shows the off-camera action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included intense preparations, workouts and numerous performances across multiple nations, each running for 3.5 hours.
She describes her own stage routines as “similar to extreme physical exertion in high heels every night”. Her feathered headdress tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the stairs to the performance area from the dressing rooms three floors below in the lower level. I had to head up ahead of time for my entrance so I could rest before I performed. One is perspiring the whole time but maintaining this image that it’s easy and beautiful and dreamlike.”
Perhaps this is where the true allure of the showgirl fantasy really lies. In the busyness of 2025 there is a longing for escapism. Is there anyone better to turn to than these performers, who have always represented fantasy, flawlessness and a world where no one makes a mistake.
