Following a three-decade run on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the dancers from the production Jubilee! gave one last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The show, renowned for its intricate costumes crafted by style icon Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to dwindling audience numbers and unimpressed commentators who called it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Currently, nearly ten years later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is back.
A Master of Glitz
Dubbed the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made dramatic stage sparkle his signature style, dressing everyone from screen legends to Madonna. In a recent auction, a “barely-there” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, well over its estimated price, while a shimmering tasseled bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more appealing for the emerging artists who is looking for something other than what they were accustomed to”, he told a media outlet. “Today's artists are striving for a glamorous, more spectacular, show-stopping, grand statement.”
A Musical Revival
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the heart of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 thanks to Taylor Swift. In the past few months, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The bedazzled bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and shimmering headpiece were ideal for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
She isn't alone. This year, showgirl inspirations have been incorporated by pop stars including Miley Cyrus as they zoomed across concert platforms in glitter, revealing designs and ostrich feathers, spotlighted against camp sets. A top stylist her creative director told Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the mid-century, Lipa’s dancers waved giant plumed accessories.
Drawing from the Past
Lipa, Carpenter and other successful musicians also take inspiration from historical performances, including burlesque and chorus line references. The results are poles apart from the 1990s era Britney Spears era of short shirts and cargo pants, and street-style dance moves that were popular earlier.
But not everyone are convinced with this glamour resurgence. A former performer, a former Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the early 2000s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “employed as an catch-all phrase covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently today's icons.”
The Highly Sought-After Retro Look
For millennial and young adult stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a style icon gave a nod to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the actress wore a see-through sequined dress made by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, Miley Cyrus paid an significant price to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn previously to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a trio of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among vintage enthusiasts.
“This style evoke fond memories for a historical elegance,” says a historian, a curator at the a Las Vegas university, who documents the story of showgirls. “Today it is considered a sort of ‘acceptable’ sexy because it has been adapted. It has got all the sophistication, the rhinestones and the glitter but without the bare skin.”
More Than Simply Fashion: An Icon of Vegas
She says the showgirl image are central to the identity of Las Vegas. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was accompanied by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas no longer has any traditional showgirl productions, the historian says they are still featured as an emblem of the city, appearing at conventions and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a remaining icon of Las Vegas glitz and glamour,” she says.
An Allure of Escape
The former showgirl says the magical transformation of a showgirl is part of the appeal. It’s something Taylor Swift references in a latest docuseries that documents the off-camera action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling preparations, workouts and 149 concerts across dozens of cities, each lasting 3.5 hours.
Hardy recalls her own stage routines as “comparable to running a marathon in heels every night”. Her headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the steps to the platform from the green rooms three floors below in the basement. I had to leave early for my entrance so I could catch my breath before I made my entrance. One is sweating the whole time but creating this illusion that it’s simple and gorgeous and ethereal.”
Maybe this is where the fascination of the showgirl really resides. 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 personified fantasy, perfection and a universe where no one falters.
