After a long-running tenure on the iconic Vegas strip, the performers from the spectacle Jubilee! gave one last synchronised kick in 2016. The show, known for its elaborate costumes created by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to dwindling audience numbers and critical reviewers who labeled it a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Now, almost a decade later, showgirls, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is back.
A King of Sparkle
Dubbed the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made theatrical showgirl glamour his signature style, dressing everyone from screen legends to Madonna. Earlier this month, a “naked” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, seven times its initial estimate, while a silver and gold beaded bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more attractive for the younger performer who is looking for something other than what they grew up with”, he told a media outlet. “New stars are striving for a theatrical, more dramatic, attention-grabbing, memorable statement.”
A Musical Revival
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the centre of popular culture in 2025 propelled by Taylor Swift. Recently, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The bedazzled bra and thong, plumed armbands and glittering headpiece were tailor-made for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer is part of a trend. This year, showgirl references have been embraced by singers including Sabrina Carpenter as they whizzed across concert platforms in sequins, cut-outs and plumes, illuminated against theatrical sets. Lipa’s stylist 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 wafted giant feathered fans.
Drawing from Tradition
Lipa, Carpenter and other hitmakers also take inspiration from 19th-century performances, including vaudeville and ensemble references. The results are vastly different from the 90s pop style of short shirts and cargo pants, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that preceded this trend.
But not everyone are convinced with this showgirl renaissance. Nancy Hardy, a former Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the early 2000s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word term is being “employed as an catch-all phrase encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even today's icons.”
A Coveted Classic Style
For younger and millennial stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a style icon paid tribute to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the star wore a see-through sequined dress created by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, Miley Cyrus paid an private amount to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn previously to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a collection of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among vintage enthusiasts.
“This style evoke fond memories for a past glamour,” says a historian, an expert at the a Las Vegas university, who studies the story of showgirls. “Currently it is considered a sort of ‘safe’ appeal because it has been adapted. It has got all the elegance, the rhinestones and the glitter but without the nudity.”
More Than Just Fashion: An Symbol of Vegas
She says the showgirl image are key to the iconography of Sin City. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was surrounded by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas currently lacks any traditional showgirl productions, Jung says they are still featured as an logo of the city, showing up at gatherings and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a remaining icon of Vegas glamour,” the expert says.
An Appeal of Escape
Nancy Hardy says the complete change of a showgirl persona is part of the appeal. This idea the singer references in a latest documentary series that documents the backstage action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling preparations, training and 149 performances across dozens of cities, each running for 3.5 hours.
The performer explains her own stage routines as “comparable to completing an endurance race in high heels every night”. Her feathered headdress tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the steps to the stage from the backstage area three floors below in the lower level. I had to start early for my moment so I could catch my breath before I went on stage. One is sweating the whole time but crafting this illusion that it’s effortless and stunning and dreamlike.”
Maybe this is where the appeal of the showgirl really is found. In the complexity of 2025 there is a longing for escapism. What better figure to turn to than such icons, who have always represented dreams, idealism and a universe where nobody makes a mistake.
