Following a three-decade run on the Las Vegas strip, the showgirls from the revue Jubilee! executed their last choreographed kick in 2016. The production, famous for its ornate costumes crafted by style icon Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to dwindling audience numbers and unimpressed commentators who called it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Today, almost a decade later, the showgirl, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is experiencing a revival.
The Master of Sparkle
Referred to as the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made over-the-top showgirl glamour his signature style, dressing everyone from Marilyn Monroe to Madonna. Earlier this month, a “naked” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, far exceeding its initial estimate, while a metallic tasseled bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more enticing for the younger performer who is looking for something other than what they were accustomed to”, he explained to a publication. “New stars are striving for a theatrical, more theatrical, show-stopping, entrance-making statement.”
A Pop Culture Revival
It’s a look that glided all the way to the centre of popular culture in 2025 propelled by Taylor Swift. Earlier this year, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, plumed armbands and sparkly headpiece were perfect for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.
She has company. This year, glamorous nods have been embraced by music artists including Dua Lipa as they zoomed across concert platforms in glitter, strategic openings and feathers, highlighted against camp sets. A top stylist her creative director mentioned in an interview with Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the mid-century, Lipa’s dancers waved giant feathered fans.
Pulling from the Past
These artists and other hitmakers also draw on classic entertainment forms, including classic theater and chorus line references. The final look are vastly different from the 1990s era pop style of crop tops and utilitarian trousers, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that were popular earlier.
But certain observers are convinced with this showgirl renaissance. Nancy Hardy, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the early 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “employed as an broad label encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently Taylor Swift.”
A Highly Sought-After Vintage Style
For gen Z and young adult stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, Zendaya honored to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the star wore a semi-sheer sequined dress made by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, a singer paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn earlier in the year to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a trio of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a favorite among collectors.
“Showgirls bring about nostalgia for a past glamour,” says a historian, head of special collections at the an academic institution, who researches the history of showgirls. “Today it is viewed as a sort of ‘acceptable’ sexy because it has been updated. It has got all the glamour, the sparkles and the glitter but without the bare skin.”
More Than Just Fashion: An Icon of Las Vegas
The expert says this figure are central to the identity of Vegas. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was flanked by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas does not host any showgirl-centric productions, Jung says they are still employed as an logo of the city, being present at conventions and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a lasting figure of Vegas spectacle,” she says.
An Allure of Transformation
Hardy says the magical transformation of a showgirl is part of the attraction. This is a notion the singer alludes to in a latest behind-the-scenes film that documents the off-camera action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting preparations, workouts and numerous performances across multiple nations, each lasting 3.5 hours.
The performer describes her own nights in the spotlight as “comparable to running a marathon in heels every night”. Her headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the steps to the performance area from the green rooms three floors below in the lower level. I had to start early for my cue so I could rest before I made my entrance. You’re perspiring the whole time but crafting this image that it’s easy and gorgeous and magical.”
Perhaps this is where the true allure of the showgirl really is found. In the complexity of 2025 there is a longing for fantasy. What better figure to turn to than such icons, who have always personified fantasy, idealism and a world where nobody misses a mark.
