After a long-running run on the Las Vegas strip, the performers from the production Jubilee! executed their last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The extravaganza, renowned for its elaborate costumes created by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, came to an end due to declining audience numbers and disappointed reviewers who described it as a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Today, nearly ten years later, the showgirl, or at least the showgirl style, is back.
A Master of Glitz
Dubbed the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glamour his trademark look, clothing everyone from Hollywood icons to music superstars. Earlier this month, a “naked” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, well over its projected value, while a metallic fringed bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more appealing for the emerging artists who is seeking something other than what they were accustomed to”, he stated in an interview with a publication. “Today's artists are striving for a theatrical, more dramatic, attention-grabbing, entrance-making statement.”
The Pop Culture Revival
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the centre of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 propelled by a global pop icon. Earlier this year, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, plumed armbands and sparkly headpiece were perfect for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
She has company. This year, showgirl inspirations have been incorporated by singers including Miley Cyrus as they danced across arena stages in sequins, revealing designs and ostrich feathers, highlighted against overstated sets. Lipa’s stylist Lorenzo Posocco explained to a style publication he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the mid-century, Lipa’s dancers fluttered giant plumed accessories.
Drawing from Tradition
Lipa, Carpenter and other hitmakers also take inspiration from 19th-century entertainment forms, including burlesque and chorus line references. The results are vastly different from the late-century teen pop of revealing tops and baggy pants, and street-style dance moves that preceded this trend.
But not everyone are on board with this glamour resurgence. An ex-showgirl, a ex- Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the early 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “employed as an broad label encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently today's icons.”
The Highly Sought-After Retro Style
For millennial and modern stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a famous actress honored to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the star wore a see-through beaded dress created by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, another pop star paid an private amount to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn at an awards show 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 popular item among vintage enthusiasts.
“Showgirls bring about fond memories for a bygone era of glitz,” says a historian, head of special collections at the a Las Vegas university, who studies the history of showgirls. “Currently it is seen as a sort of ‘safe’ sexy because it has been adapted. It has got all the sophistication, the sparkles and the glitter but without the exposure.”
More Than Simply Fashion: An Symbol of Las Vegas
She says showgirls are integral to the identity of Sin City. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was surrounded by two showgirls. While Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-centric productions, Jung says they are still featured as an symbol of the city, appearing at corporate events and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a remaining figure of Las Vegas glamour,” Chung says.
The Appeal of Escape
Nancy Hardy says the complete change of a showgirl persona is part of the appeal. This idea Swift hints at in a recent docuseries that shows the backstage action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included intense practice sessions, workouts and 149 shows across multiple nations, each lasting 3.5 hours.
Hardy recalls her own nights in the spotlight as “similar to completing an endurance race in heels every night”. Her feathered headdress tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the staircase to the performance area from the backstage area three floors below in the basement. I had to leave early for my entrance so I could rest before I made my entrance. One is sweating the whole time but creating this illusion that it’s effortless and beautiful and ethereal.”
Perhaps this is where the appeal of the showgirl really lies. In the complexity of 2025 there is a desire for escapism. Is there anyone better to turn to than these performers, who have always embodied fantasy, flawlessness and a realm where no one misses a mark.
