Following a long-running stint on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the performers from the revue Jubilee! gave one last synchronised kick in 2016. The show, famous for its ornate costumes crafted by style icon Bob Mackie, ended its run due to falling audience numbers and critical critics who labeled it a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Currently, roughly eight years later, the showgirl, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is making a comeback.
The Master of Glitz
Dubbed the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made dramatic stage sparkle his signature style, dressing everyone from Marilyn Monroe to pop royalty. Recently, a “see-through” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, seven times its estimated price, while a silver and gold tasseled bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more enticing for the new generation of stars who is looking for something other than what they were accustomed to”, he told a newspaper. “New stars are pushing toward a theatrical, more theatrical, show-stopping, entrance-making statement.”
The Pop Culture Comeback
It’s a look that glided all the way to the heart of mainstream fashion in 2025 largely due to Taylor Swift. Earlier this year, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, feathered armbands and glittering headpiece were tailor-made for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift is part of a trend. This year, glamorous nods have been incorporated by pop stars including Dua Lipa as they zoomed across world tours in sequins, cut-outs and plumes, illuminated against theatrical sets. Her fashion curator a fashion expert mentioned in an interview with a style publication he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the 50s, her performers wafted giant feathered fans.
Drawing from History
Modern stars and other successful musicians also draw on classic entertainment forms, including classic theater and chorus line references. The results are poles apart from the late-century teen pop of short shirts and utilitarian trousers, and urban dance moves that were popular earlier.
But certain observers are enthusiastic with this glamour resurgence. Nancy Hardy, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the 2000s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “used as an broad label covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even modern pop stars.”
A Coveted Retro Style
For millennial and modern stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a famous actress paid tribute to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actress wore a see-through sequined dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, a singer paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn earlier in the year to perform at the Grammys. In September, the singer wore a trio of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among collectors.
“Showgirls inspire fond memories for a bygone era of glitz,” says a historian, an expert at the an academic institution, who documents the history of showgirls. “Today it is viewed as a sort of ‘safe’ sexy because it has been modified. It has got all the sophistication, the crystals and the glitter but without the bare skin.”
A Than Just Fashion: An Icon of the City
The expert says the showgirl image are integral to the imagery of Sin City. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was surrounded by two showgirls. While Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-centric productions, Chung says they are still used as an emblem of the city, appearing at gatherings and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a lasting symbol of Las Vegas spectacle,” the expert says.
An Allure of Escape
Hardy says the complete change of a showgirl is part of the allure. This is a notion the singer references in a new documentary series that captures the off-camera action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling practice sessions, gym sessions and 149 concerts across multiple nations, each lasting 3.5 hours.
Hardy recalls her own nights in the spotlight as “comparable to completing an endurance race in stilettos every night”. Her feathered headdress was 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the stairs to the platform from the dressing rooms three floors below in the underground. I had to leave early for my entrance so I could rest before I performed. You are perspiring the whole time but creating this illusion that it’s effortless and beautiful and magical.”
Perhaps this is where the fascination of the showgirl really is found. In the complexity of 2025 there is a desire for a break from reality. Is there anyone better to turn to than showgirls, who have always represented fantasy, perfection and a world where nobody falters.
