After a three-decade stint on the Las Vegas strip, the showgirls from the spectacle Jubilee! took a final choreographed kick in 2016. The show, renowned for its elaborate costumes designed by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, came to an end due to falling audience numbers and disappointed reviewers who described it as a spectacle “trapped in time”.
Currently, almost a decade later, the showgirl, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is making a comeback.
The Sultan of Sequins
Referred to as the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made theatrical stage sparkle his trademark look, dressing everyone from screen legends to music superstars. Recently, a “see-through” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, seven times its estimated price, while a silver and gold tasseled bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more appealing for the new generation of stars who is desiring something other than what they grew up with”, he told a publication. “New stars are embracing a glamorous, more theatrical, attention-grabbing, grand statement.”
A Pop Culture Resurgence
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the centre of popular culture in 2025 thanks to a global pop icon. Recently, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The bedazzled bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and sparkly headpiece were tailor-made for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.
She has company. This year, glamorous nods have been incorporated by pop stars including Dua Lipa as they whizzed across arena stages in sequins, revealing designs and plumes, highlighted against camp sets. Lipa’s stylist her creative director mentioned in an interview with Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the mid-century, her performers waved giant plumed accessories.
Pulling from Tradition
These artists and other hitmakers also reference 19th-century entertainment forms, including vaudeville and chorus line references. The results are vastly different from the 90s pop style of crop tops and baggy pants, and urban dance moves that preceded this trend.
But some critics are convinced with this showgirl revival. Nancy Hardy, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the 00s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “used as an umbrella term covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even today's icons.”
The Coveted Classic Style
For younger and young adult stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become incredibly sought-after. In 2024, a famous actress gave a nod to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the star wore a semi-sheer embellished dress created by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, another pop star paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn previously to perform at the Grammys. In September, Sabrina Carpenter wore a trio of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a favorite among fashion collectors.
“This style bring about nostalgia for a historical elegance,” says a historian, an expert at the University of Nevada, who studies the story of showgirls. “Now it is seen as a sort of ‘acceptable’ allure because it has been updated. It has got all the elegance, the rhinestones and the sparkle but without the exposure.”
A Than Simply Style: An Symbol of Las Vegas
She says this figure are key to the imagery of Vegas. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was surrounded by two showgirls. While Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-centric productions, the historian says they are still used as an emblem of the city, showing up at corporate events and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a lasting icon of Vegas spectacle,” the expert says.
An Allure of Transformation
The former showgirl says the complete change of a showgirl is part of the appeal. This idea Swift hints at in a recent docuseries that shows the off-camera action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting preparations, workouts and numerous performances across dozens of cities, each running for 3.5 hours.
She explains her own stage routines as “comparable to completing an endurance race in heels every night”. Her headpiece was 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the stairs to the platform from the green rooms three floors below in the underground. I had to head up ahead of time for my moment so I could rest before I went on stage. You’re perspiring the whole time but creating this fantasy that it’s effortless and gorgeous and ethereal.”
It could be this is where the appeal of the showgirl really resides. In the chaos of 2025 there is a craving for fantasy. Is there anyone better to look to than showgirls, who have always embodied fantasy, flawlessness and a universe where no one misses a mark.
