Following a long-running tenure on the Las Vegas strip, the showgirls from the production Jubilee! executed their last choreographed kick in 2016. The production, famous for its intricate costumes created by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, ended its run due to falling audience numbers and disappointed commentators who called it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Currently, roughly eight years later, the showgirl, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is back.
The Sultan of Glitz
Dubbed the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glamour his signature style, dressing everyone from Marilyn Monroe to music superstars. Recently, a “barely-there” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, well over its initial estimate, while a silver and gold tasseled bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more attractive for the emerging artists who is looking for something other than what they were accustomed to”, he explained to a media outlet. “Today's artists are embracing a theatrical, more theatrical, show-stopping, memorable statement.”
The Musical Comeback
It’s a look that glided all the way to the heart of mainstream fashion in 2025 largely due 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 crystal-covered bra and thong, plumed armbands and shimmering headpiece were perfect for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift isn't alone. This year, showgirl references have been adopted by music artists including Sabrina Carpenter as they danced across concert platforms in glitter, revealing designs and ostrich feathers, spotlighted against theatrical sets. A top stylist Lorenzo Posocco explained to Vogue he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the 1950s, her performers waved giant feathered fans.
Drawing from Tradition
These artists and other chart toppers also take inspiration from classic performances, including classic theater and dance line references. The outcome are worlds away from the 90s Britney Spears era of short shirts and utilitarian trousers, and urban dance moves that came before them.
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 term is being “employed as an umbrella term covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even today's icons.”
The Highly Sought-After Classic Look
For younger and millennial stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a famous actress gave a nod to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actress wore a semi-sheer embellished dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, 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, Carpenter wore a collection of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a favorite among fashion collectors.
“The showgirl aesthetic inspire nostalgia for a bygone era of glitz,” says Su Kim Chung, a curator at the University of Nevada, who documents the legacy of showgirls. “Now it is considered a sort of ‘safe’ allure because it has been updated. It has got all the elegance, the sparkles and the glitter but without the exposure.”
A Than Simply Style: An Symbol of the City
She says the showgirl image are key to the identity of Sin City. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was accompanied by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas does not host any traditional showgirl productions, Jung says they are still used as an symbol of the city, being present at gatherings and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a remaining icon of Las Vegas spectacle,” Chung says.
An Appeal of Transformation
The former showgirl says the complete change of a showgirl is part of the allure. This idea the singer hints at in a recent docuseries that shows the backstage action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling preparations, workouts and countless performances across multiple nations, each running for 3.5 hours.
She recalls her own stage routines as “similar to extreme physical exertion in high heels every night”. Her feathered headdress was 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the steps to the stage from the dressing rooms three floors below in the lower level. I had to head up ahead of time for my moment so I could rest before I performed. You’re working hard the whole time but maintaining this illusion that it’s effortless and beautiful and ethereal.”
Maybe this is where the appeal of the showgirl fantasy really lies. In the busyness of 2025 there is a longing for a break from reality. What better figure to turn to than such icons, who have always represented fantasy, perfection and a world where nobody misses a mark.
