After a 31-year run on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the dancers from the production Jubilee! gave one last synchronised kick in 2016. The production, known for its intricate costumes crafted by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, came to an end due to dwindling audience numbers and critical reviewers who called it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Now, nearly ten years later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is back.
A Master of Sparkle
Known as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made theatrical showgirl glitz his defining aesthetic, clothing everyone from screen legends to music superstars. In a recent auction, a “naked” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, far exceeding its projected value, while a metallic fringed bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more attractive for the emerging artists who is desiring something other than what they were accustomed to”, he told a publication. “Today's artists are embracing a glamorous, more theatrical, attention-grabbing, entrance-making statement.”
A Pop Culture Resurgence
It’s a look that glided all the way to the epicenter of popular culture in 2025 thanks to a global pop icon. In the past few months, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The crystal-covered bra and thong, plumed armbands and glittering headpiece were ideal for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift isn't alone. This year, glamorous nods have been embraced by pop stars including Sabrina Carpenter as they danced across arena stages in sequins, strategic openings and plumes, spotlighted against theatrical sets. Her fashion curator a fashion expert explained to Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the mid-century, her performers waved giant ostrich feather fans.
Drawing from Tradition
Lipa, Carpenter and other hitmakers also reference classic entertainment forms, including classic theater and chorus line references. The results are vastly different from the 90s Britney Spears era of revealing tops and baggy pants, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that preceded this trend.
But certain observers are on board with this showgirl revival. Nancy Hardy, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the 00s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “used as an umbrella term including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even modern pop stars.”
The Highly Sought-After Classic Look
For millennial and modern stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a famous actress honored to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actor wore a translucent beaded dress made by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, another pop star paid an private amount to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn earlier in the year to perform at the Grammys. In September, Sabrina Carpenter wore a series of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among fashion collectors.
“The showgirl aesthetic inspire nostalgia for a bygone era of glitz,” says an archivist, an expert at the a Las Vegas university, who studies the legacy of showgirls. “Currently it is considered a sort of ‘toned-down’ allure because it has been updated. It has got all the elegance, the sparkles and the glitter but without the bare skin.”
More Than Just Style: An Symbol of the City
The expert says this figure are key to the iconography of Vegas. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was accompanied by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas does not host any showgirl-centric productions, Jung says they are still featured as an logo of the city, being present at conventions and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a remaining icon of Las Vegas glamour,” the expert says.
An Allure of Illusion
The former showgirl says the complete change of a showgirl is part of the appeal. This is a notion Swift references in a latest behind-the-scenes film that captures the behind-the-scenes action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting preparations, workouts and numerous shows across multiple nations, each going on for 3.5 hours.
Hardy recalls her own nights in the spotlight as “similar to extreme physical exertion in heels every night”. Her headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the stairs to the performance area from the backstage area three floors below in the lower level. I had to head up ahead of time for my cue so I could catch my breath before I made my entrance. One is sweating the whole time but creating this image that it’s easy and gorgeous and ethereal.”
It could be this is where the fascination of the showgirl really resides. In the complexity of 2025 there is a craving for escapism. Who better to look to than such icons, who have always represented dreams, flawlessness and a world where nobody makes a mistake.
