Following a three-decade run on the iconic Vegas strip, the performers from the production Jubilee! executed their last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The production, famous for its elaborate costumes created by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, ended its run due to dwindling audience numbers and disappointed critics who called it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Currently, roughly eight years later, the showgirl, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is experiencing a revival.
A King of Sequins
Known as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made theatrical stage sparkle his trademark look, clothing everyone from Hollywood icons to pop royalty. Earlier this month, a “barely-there” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, far exceeding its projected value, while a shimmering fringed bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more attractive for the new generation of stars who is looking for something other than what they grew up with”, he told a media outlet. “Contemporary performers are embracing a glamorous, more spectacular, breathtaking, memorable statement.”
A Mainstream Revival
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the centre of mainstream fashion in 2025 propelled by a global pop icon. In the past few months, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, feathered armbands and shimmering headpiece were perfect for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift has company. This year, showgirl inspirations have been embraced by music artists including Sabrina Carpenter as they whizzed across world tours in sparkles, revealing designs and plumes, highlighted against camp sets. Her fashion curator her creative director told Vogue he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the mid-century, her performers fluttered giant feathered fans.
Drawing from Tradition
Lipa, Carpenter and other chart toppers also take inspiration from historical performances, including vaudeville and ensemble references. The final look are vastly different from the late-century Britney Spears era of short shirts and cargo pants, and urban dance moves that came before them.
But not everyone are convinced with this showgirl renaissance. Nancy Hardy, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the early 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word term is being “used as an catch-all phrase including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even today's icons.”
The Highly Sought-After Retro Style
For younger 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 actor wore a translucent beaded dress created by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, Miley Cyrus 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 vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a favorite among vintage enthusiasts.
“The showgirl aesthetic evoke fond memories for a past glamour,” says an archivist, an expert at the University of Nevada, who studies the history of showgirls. “Today it is viewed as a sort of ‘acceptable’ sexy because it has been adapted. It has got all the sophistication, the sparkles and the glitter but without the nudity.”
A Than Just Style: An Symbol of Vegas
The expert says showgirls are central to the iconography of Las Vegas. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was accompanied by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas does not host any showgirl-based productions, Jung says they are still employed as an emblem of the city, showing up at corporate events and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a enduring figure of Vegas spectacle,” the expert says.
The Allure of Illusion
The former showgirl says the magical transformation of a stage character is part of the attraction. This idea the singer references in a latest behind-the-scenes film that documents the behind-the-scenes action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling practice sessions, training and 149 shows across dozens of cities, each going on for 3.5 hours.
She describes her own stage routines as “like completing an endurance race in heels every night”. Her feathered headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the steps to the stage from the backstage area three floors below in the lower level. I had to leave early for my moment so I could recover before I performed. You’re perspiring the whole time but crafting this image that it’s simple and stunning and dreamlike.”
Maybe this is where the fascination of the showgirl really lies. In the complexity of 2025 there is a desire for a break from reality. Is there anyone better to turn to than such icons, who have always personified fantasy, idealism and a world where nobody misses a mark.
