After a three-decade run on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the performers from the spectacle Jubilee! took a final choreographed kick in 2016. The production, famous for its elaborate costumes crafted by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, ended its run due to declining audience numbers and unimpressed critics who described it as a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Now, nearly ten years later, the showgirl, or at least the showgirl style, is making a comeback.
A Master of Sparkle
Dubbed the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made dramatic stage sparkle his signature style, clothing everyone from Marilyn Monroe to pop royalty. In a recent auction, a “naked” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, far exceeding its projected value, while a metallic fringed bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more appealing for the emerging artists who is desiring something other than what they knew from childhood”, he told a newspaper. “Contemporary performers are pushing toward a theatrical, more dramatic, breathtaking, memorable statement.”
The Pop Culture Comeback
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the centre of popular culture 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 latest record. The crystal-covered bra and thong, plumed armbands and sparkly headpiece were tailor-made for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer is part of a trend. This year, showgirl references have been embraced by pop stars including Dua Lipa as they danced across concert platforms in sparkles, strategic openings and ostrich feathers, spotlighted against theatrical sets. A top stylist a fashion expert explained to a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the 1950s, her performers waved giant feathered fans.
Drawing from History
Modern stars and other successful musicians also draw on 19th-century entertainment forms, including burlesque and ensemble references. The outcome are poles apart from the 90s Britney Spears era of revealing tops and cargo pants, and urban dance moves that preceded this trend.
But certain observers are on board with this glamour resurgence. An ex-showgirl, a former Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “used as an umbrella term encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even Taylor Swift.”
A Coveted Vintage Style
For gen Z and modern stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a famous actress honored to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actress wore a semi-sheer sequined dress made by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, a singer paid an significant price to buy the Mackie fringed 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 favorite among fashion collectors.
“The showgirl aesthetic inspire a sense of longing for a bygone era of glitz,” says Su Kim Chung, head of special collections at the an academic institution, who studies the story of showgirls. “Now it is viewed as a sort of ‘acceptable’ sexy because it has been updated. It has got all the elegance, the rhinestones and the sparkle but without the bare skin.”
More Than Simply Style: An Icon of the City
Chung says this figure are central to the imagery of Las Vegas. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was flanked by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-centric productions, Chung says they are still employed as an emblem of the city, showing up at corporate events and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a enduring symbol of Las Vegas glitz and glamour,” she says.
The Allure of Escape
Nancy Hardy says the transformative effect of a showgirl is part of the attraction. This idea Taylor Swift references in a new behind-the-scenes film that documents the behind-the-scenes action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling practice sessions, gym sessions and countless concerts across multiple nations, each running for 3.5 hours.
Hardy describes her own stage routines as “like extreme physical exertion in stilettos every night”. Her headpiece weighed 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the staircase to the stage from the dressing rooms three floors below in the lower level. I had to leave early for my entrance so I could rest before I made my entrance. You’re sweating the whole time but crafting this fantasy that it’s simple and gorgeous and dreamlike.”
It could be this is where the fascination of the showgirl really resides. In the complexity of 2025 there is a longing for fantasy. Is there anyone better to look to than such icons, who have always represented make-believe, perfection and a universe where nobody makes a mistake.
