After a three-decade tenure on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the performers from the revue Jubilee! executed their last choreographed kick in 2016. The show, known for its elaborate costumes created by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, ended its run due to falling audience numbers and critical critics who called it a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Today, roughly eight years later, the showgirl persona, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is making a comeback.
A King of Sequins
Referred to as the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made theatrical stage sparkle his signature style, dressing everyone from Marilyn Monroe to pop royalty. Earlier this month, a “naked” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, seven times its initial estimate, while a shimmering tasseled bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more appealing for the younger performer who is seeking something other than what they knew from childhood”, he told a media outlet. “Today's artists are embracing a theatrical, more dramatic, breathtaking, grand statement.”
A Musical Revival
It’s a look that glided all the way to the centre of popular culture in 2025 thanks to a chart-topping superstar. Earlier this year, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The crystal-covered bra and thong, plumed armbands and shimmering headpiece were tailor-made for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift is part of a trend. This year, showgirl references have been incorporated by music artists including Miley Cyrus as they whizzed across arena stages in glitter, strategic openings and feathers, highlighted against theatrical sets. Lipa’s stylist a fashion expert mentioned in an interview with a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the 1950s, Lipa’s dancers fluttered giant plumed accessories.
Drawing from the Past
Lipa, Carpenter and other hitmakers also reference classic performances, including vaudeville and chorus line references. The final look are worlds away from the 90s teen pop of revealing tops and cargo pants, and urban dance moves that came before them.
But not everyone are enthusiastic with this glamour resurgence. Nancy Hardy, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the 00s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “used as an umbrella term including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly modern pop stars.”
A Highly Sought-After Classic Look
For millennial and millennial stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become incredibly sought-after. In 2024, Zendaya paid tribute to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the star wore a translucent beaded dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, another pop star paid an significant price to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn earlier in the year to perform at the Grammys. In September, Sabrina Carpenter wore a trio of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among fashion collectors.
“The showgirl aesthetic evoke a sense of longing for a past glamour,” says an archivist, a curator at the University of Nevada, who researches the legacy of showgirls. “Currently it is viewed as a sort of ‘toned-down’ allure because it has been adapted. It has got all the glamour, the crystals and the glitter but without the exposure.”
A Than Simply Style: An Symbol of Las Vegas
Chung says this figure are central to the iconography of Vegas. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was accompanied by two showgirls. While Las Vegas does not host any traditional showgirl productions, Chung says they are still used as an emblem of the city, being present at conventions and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a lasting icon of Las Vegas glamour,” Chung says.
The Appeal of Escape
Nancy Hardy says the complete change of a showgirl persona is part of the attraction. It’s something Taylor Swift hints at in a latest docuseries that documents the backstage action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling preparations, gym sessions and 149 shows across dozens of cities, each lasting 3.5 hours.
Hardy describes her own nights in the spotlight as “like completing an endurance race in stilettos every night”. Her feathered headdress tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the steps to the performance area 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 performed. One is sweating the whole time but creating this fantasy that it’s effortless and stunning and ethereal.”
It could be this is where the true allure of the showgirl fantasy really is found. In the complexity of 2025 there is a craving for a break from reality. What better figure to look to than showgirls, who have always embodied fantasy, idealism and a realm where no one makes a mistake.
