After a 31-year tenure on the iconic Vegas strip, the dancers from the revue Jubilee! gave one last choreographed kick in 2016. The production, renowned for its ornate costumes created by style icon Bob Mackie, ended its run due to declining audience numbers and disappointed reviewers who labeled it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Now, roughly eight years later, the showgirl, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is experiencing a revival.
A Sultan of Glitz
Dubbed the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made theatrical showgirl glamour his signature style, clothing everyone from Marilyn Monroe to music superstars. Recently, a “barely-there” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, well over its initial estimate, while a silver and gold tasseled bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more attractive for the younger performer who is seeking something other than what they were accustomed to”, he explained to a media outlet. “Today's artists are striving for a glamorous, more dramatic, attention-grabbing, entrance-making statement.”
A Pop Culture Revival
It’s a look that glided all the way to the heart of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 largely due to a chart-topping superstar. Earlier this year, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, plumed armbands and glittering headpiece were tailor-made for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift is part of a trend. This year, showgirl inspirations have been incorporated by singers including Miley Cyrus as they zoomed across concert platforms in sparkles, strategic openings and ostrich feathers, spotlighted against overstated sets. A top stylist a fashion expert explained to a style publication he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the 50s, the backup dancers waved giant feathered fans.
Drawing from History
Modern stars and other successful musicians also take inspiration from classic performances, including classic theater and dance line references. The outcome are vastly different from the late-century Britney Spears era of crop tops and cargo pants, and street-style dance moves that preceded this trend.
But not everyone are on board with this showgirl revival. Nancy Hardy, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the 00s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word term is being “used as an broad label covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently today's icons.”
The Coveted Vintage Look
For millennial and young adult stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, Zendaya paid tribute to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the actress wore a translucent beaded dress made 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 undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn earlier in the year 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 popular item among collectors.
“Showgirls inspire nostalgia for a bygone era of glitz,” says Su Kim Chung, an expert at the a Las Vegas university, who researches the history of showgirls. “Currently it is viewed as a sort of ‘acceptable’ allure because it has been updated. It has got all the elegance, the rhinestones and the glitter but without the exposure.”
More Than Simply Style: An Symbol of the City
She says this figure are key to the iconography of Las Vegas. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was accompanied by two showgirls. While Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-centric productions, Chung says they are still used as an emblem of the city, appearing at corporate events and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a remaining icon of Las Vegas glamour,” the expert says.
An Appeal of Illusion
Hardy says the magical transformation of a showgirl is part of the appeal. This idea Swift hints at in a new documentary series that shows the backstage action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling rehearsals, training and numerous shows across 21 countries, each going on for 3.5 hours.
Hardy explains her own nights in the spotlight as “similar to extreme physical exertion 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 basement. I had to leave early for my moment so I could catch my breath before I went on stage. One is perspiring the whole time but crafting this illusion that it’s effortless and gorgeous and ethereal.”
It could be this is where the true allure of the showgirl fantasy really lies. In the busyness of 2025 there is a craving for a break from reality. Who better to look to than such icons, who have always represented make-believe, idealism and a universe where nobody falters.
