After a long-running run on the iconic Vegas strip, the dancers from the spectacle Jubilee! took a final choreographed kick in 2016. The production, famous for its intricate costumes designed by style icon Bob Mackie, ended its run due to falling audience numbers and unimpressed critics who labeled it a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Today, roughly eight years later, showgirls, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is making a comeback.
A King of Glitz
Dubbed the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made theatrical showgirl glamour his defining aesthetic, dressing everyone from screen legends to pop royalty. Recently, a “see-through” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, seven times its initial estimate, while a metallic beaded bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more enticing for the emerging artists who is desiring something other than what they were accustomed to”, he stated in an interview with a newspaper. “Contemporary performers are striving for a show-stopping, more spectacular, attention-grabbing, grand statement.”
A Musical Comeback
It’s a look that glided all the way to the heart of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 thanks to Taylor Swift. Recently, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, feathered armbands and sparkly headpiece were perfect for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
She has company. This year, showgirl references have been incorporated by pop stars including Dua Lipa as they zoomed across concert platforms in sequins, strategic openings and ostrich feathers, spotlighted against theatrical sets. Lipa’s stylist her creative director mentioned in an interview with a style publication he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the 1950s, her performers wafted giant feathered fans.
Drawing from the Past
Modern stars and other chart toppers also take inspiration from historical entertainment forms, including vaudeville and dance line references. The final look are poles apart from the 1990s era Britney Spears era of crop tops and utilitarian trousers, and street-style dance moves that came before them.
But certain observers are convinced with this glamour resurgence. Nancy Hardy, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. 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 modern pop stars.”
A Highly Sought-After Classic Style
For millennial and modern stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, Zendaya paid tribute to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the star wore a translucent beaded dress made by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, another pop star paid an private amount to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn earlier in the year to perform at the Grammys. In September, Sabrina Carpenter wore a trio of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among vintage enthusiasts.
“This style bring about fond memories for a past glamour,” says a historian, an expert at the an academic institution, who documents the story of showgirls. “Currently it is viewed as a sort of ‘safe’ sexy because it has been modified. It has got all the elegance, the sparkles and the glitter but without the nudity.”
More Than Just Fashion: An Icon of the City
Chung says this figure are central to the iconography of Las Vegas. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was accompanied by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-centric productions, Chung says they are still featured as an logo of the city, showing up at conventions and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a remaining figure of Las Vegas glitz and glamour,” the expert says.
The Appeal of Illusion
Hardy says the transformative effect of a stage character is part of the allure. This is a notion Taylor Swift alludes to in a new documentary series that captures the off-camera action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting preparations, workouts and countless shows across multiple nations, each running for 3.5 hours.
Hardy describes her own nights in the spotlight as “comparable to completing an endurance race in heels every night”. Her feathered headdress tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the steps to the platform from the dressing rooms three floors below in the underground. I had to start early for my entrance so I could rest before I made my entrance. One is working hard the whole time but crafting this illusion that it’s easy and beautiful and dreamlike.”
Perhaps this is where the fascination of the showgirl really is found. In the chaos of 2025 there is a craving for a break from reality. What better figure to emulate than these performers, who have always represented make-believe, flawlessness and a realm where nobody falters.
