After a 31-year stint on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the showgirls from the revue Jubilee! took a final synchronised kick in 2016. The show, known for its intricate costumes designed by style icon Bob Mackie, ended its run due to declining audience numbers and disappointed critics who described it as a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Today, roughly eight years later, the showgirl, or at least the showgirl style, is back.
A Sultan of Glitz
Known as the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glitz his defining aesthetic, dressing everyone from Hollywood icons to Madonna. Earlier this month, a “naked” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, far exceeding its estimated price, while a shimmering tasseled bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more enticing for the emerging artists who is seeking something other than what they knew from childhood”, he explained to a newspaper. “Today's artists are embracing a show-stopping, more dramatic, breathtaking, memorable statement.”
A Musical Revival
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the heart of popular culture in 2025 largely due to Taylor Swift. Recently, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and sparkly headpiece were tailor-made for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift isn't alone. This year, glamorous nods have been embraced by singers including Dua Lipa as they danced across concert platforms in glitter, strategic openings and ostrich feathers, illuminated against overstated sets. Lipa’s stylist her creative director mentioned in an interview with a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the mid-century, Lipa’s dancers fluttered giant plumed accessories.
Pulling from Tradition
These artists and other successful musicians also reference historical entertainment forms, including vaudeville and chorus line references. The final look are vastly different from the 1990s era teen pop of crop tops and cargo pants, and street-style dance moves that preceded this trend.
But some critics are convinced with this glamour resurgence. Nancy Hardy, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the early 2000s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “used as an umbrella term encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently modern pop stars.”
A Highly Sought-After Classic Style
For younger and modern stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become incredibly sought-after. In 2024, Zendaya honored 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 reminiscent of one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, a singer paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn at an awards show to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a series of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a favorite among collectors.
“The showgirl aesthetic inspire nostalgia for a past glamour,” says a historian, a curator at the a Las Vegas university, who studies the legacy of showgirls. “Currently it is seen as a sort of ‘acceptable’ sexy because it has been updated. It has got all the elegance, the sparkles and the sparkle but without the nudity.”
More Than Simply Fashion: An Symbol of Las Vegas
The expert says this figure are key to the imagery of Las Vegas. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was surrounded by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-based productions, Chung says they are still used as an emblem of the city, being present at conventions and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a lasting icon of Las Vegas glitz and glamour,” the expert says.
An Allure of Transformation
Nancy Hardy says the complete change of a stage character is part of the attraction. It’s something Taylor Swift references in a recent documentary series that captures the backstage action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting preparations, gym sessions and countless performances across multiple nations, each going on for 3.5 hours.
The performer recalls her own nights in the spotlight as “like running a marathon in stilettos every night”. Her feathered headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the steps to the stage from the dressing rooms three floors below in the basement. I had to start early for my entrance so I could rest before I performed. You’re perspiring the whole time but maintaining this illusion that it’s simple and beautiful and dreamlike.”
Perhaps this is where the appeal of the showgirl fantasy really lies. In the chaos of 2025 there is a desire for escapism. What better figure to look to than showgirls, who have always embodied fantasy, flawlessness and a world where no one misses a mark.
