Following a 31-year stint on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the showgirls from the production Jubilee! executed their last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The show, known for its elaborate costumes designed by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, ended its run due to dwindling audience numbers and unimpressed commentators who called it a spectacle “trapped in time”.
Today, roughly eight years later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl style, is back.
A Master of Glitz
Dubbed the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glamour his signature style, outfitting everyone from Hollywood icons to music superstars. Recently, a “see-through” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, seven times its projected value, while a silver and gold beaded bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more attractive for the younger performer who is looking for something other than what they knew from childhood”, he told a newspaper. “New stars are striving for a show-stopping, more spectacular, breathtaking, grand statement.”
A Pop Culture Revival
It’s a look that glided all the way to the epicenter of mainstream fashion in 2025 largely due to a chart-topping superstar. Earlier this year, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The bedazzled bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and glittering headpiece were perfect for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift is part of a trend. This year, glamorous nods have been incorporated by singers including Dua Lipa as they zoomed across concert platforms in glitter, revealing designs and feathers, spotlighted against camp sets. A top stylist a fashion expert mentioned in an interview with a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the 50s, the backup dancers fluttered giant ostrich feather fans.
Pulling from History
Lipa, Carpenter and other hitmakers also take inspiration from classic entertainment forms, including burlesque and chorus line references. The final look are vastly different from the late-century teen pop of short shirts and cargo pants, and urban dance moves that came before them.
But not everyone are convinced with this glamour resurgence. A former performer, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the early 2000s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “treated as an umbrella term including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly Taylor Swift.”
A Coveted Retro Look
For millennial and millennial stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, Zendaya honored to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the star wore a semi-sheer sequined dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, another pop star paid an private amount to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn at an awards show to perform at the Grammys. In September, Sabrina Carpenter wore a trio of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among vintage enthusiasts.
“The showgirl aesthetic evoke fond memories for a past glamour,” says an archivist, head of special collections at the an academic institution, who studies the legacy of showgirls. “Today it is considered a sort of ‘acceptable’ sexy because it has been modified. It has got all the sophistication, the crystals and the shine but without the bare skin.”
A Than Simply Fashion: An Icon of Vegas
She says this figure are integral to the iconography of Vegas. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was surrounded by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-centric productions, the historian says they are still featured as an symbol of the city, being present at conventions and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a lasting symbol of Las Vegas glitz and glamour,” the expert says.
An Appeal of Escape
The former showgirl says the magical transformation of a stage character is part of the allure. This idea Taylor Swift alludes to in a new docuseries that documents the off-camera action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting preparations, training and 149 concerts across multiple nations, each lasting 3.5 hours.
She explains her own showgirl performances as “similar to running a marathon in heels every night”. Her feathered headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the stairs to the performance area from the green rooms three floors below in the basement. I had to head up ahead of time for my moment so I could recover before I went on stage. You’re working hard the whole time but maintaining this image that it’s easy and stunning and magical.”
It could be this is where the true allure of the showgirl fantasy really lies. In the chaos of 2025 there is a longing for a break from reality. Is there anyone better to emulate than such icons, who have always personified fantasy, flawlessness and a world where nobody falters.
