After a 31-year tenure on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the dancers from the production Jubilee! took a final choreographed kick in 2016. The extravaganza, famous for its intricate costumes created by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, came to an end due to dwindling audience numbers and disappointed reviewers who labeled it a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Now, roughly eight years later, the showgirl, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is experiencing a revival.
A Master of Sparkle
Known as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made over-the-top showgirl glamour his defining aesthetic, outfitting everyone from Hollywood icons to Madonna. Recently, a “see-through” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, far exceeding its estimated price, while a silver and gold beaded bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more appealing for the emerging artists who is desiring something other than what they grew up with”, he told a publication. “Contemporary performers are embracing a show-stopping, more dramatic, attention-grabbing, entrance-making statement.”
A Pop Culture Comeback
It’s a look that glided all the way to the heart of popular culture in 2025 propelled by a chart-topping superstar. In the past few months, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, feathered armbands and sparkly headpiece were ideal for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
She is part of a trend. This year, glamorous nods have been embraced by singers including Dua Lipa as they danced across world tours in sparkles, revealing designs and plumes, illuminated against camp sets. Her fashion curator her creative director told a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the mid-century, Lipa’s dancers fluttered giant feathered fans.
Drawing from Tradition
Lipa, Carpenter and other successful musicians also take inspiration from historical entertainment forms, including burlesque and ensemble references. The results are vastly different from the 90s Britney Spears era of revealing tops and cargo pants, and street-style dance moves that were popular earlier.
But certain observers are on board with this showgirl revival. An ex-showgirl, a former Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the 2000s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word term is being “treated as an umbrella term encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly Taylor Swift.”
A Highly Sought-After Retro Style
For younger and young adult stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a famous actress honored to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actor wore a see-through embellished dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, a singer paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn previously to perform at the Grammys. In September, the singer wore a series of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among collectors.
“This style evoke fond memories for a historical elegance,” says Su Kim Chung, a curator at the a Las Vegas university, who researches the history of showgirls. “Now it is considered a sort of ‘acceptable’ sexy because it has been modified. It has got all the elegance, the crystals and the sparkle but without the bare skin.”
A Than Simply Style: An Symbol of the City
The expert says this figure are key to the iconography of Sin City. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was flanked by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas no longer has any traditional showgirl productions, Chung says they are still used as an logo of the city, showing up at corporate events and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a enduring icon of Vegas spectacle,” she says.
The Appeal of Escape
Nancy Hardy says the transformative effect of a stage character is part of the allure. This is a notion Swift alludes to in a latest documentary series that documents the off-camera action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling rehearsals, workouts and 149 performances across dozens of cities, each running for 3.5 hours.
The performer explains her own showgirl performances as “like running a marathon in high heels every night”. Her feathered headdress tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the stairs to the performance area from the dressing rooms three floors below in the lower level. I had to start early for my entrance so I could recover before I went on stage. One is sweating the whole time but maintaining this image that it’s simple and gorgeous and magical.”
Maybe this is where the true allure of the showgirl fantasy really resides. In the busyness of 2025 there is a longing for escapism. What better figure to look to than these performers, who have always represented dreams, perfection and a universe where nobody falters.
