After a long-running run on the Las Vegas strip, the showgirls from the production Jubilee! gave one last choreographed kick in 2016. The extravaganza, famous for its ornate costumes designed by style icon Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to dwindling audience numbers and critical commentators who described it as a spectacle “trapped in time”.
Currently, roughly eight years later, the showgirl persona, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is making a comeback.
A Sultan of Glitz
Referred to as the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made over-the-top showgirl glitz his defining aesthetic, dressing everyone from Hollywood icons to music superstars. Recently, a “naked” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, seven times its initial estimate, while a silver and gold beaded bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more enticing for the younger performer who is seeking something other than what they grew up with”, he explained to a publication. “New stars are striving for a show-stopping, more spectacular, attention-grabbing, entrance-making statement.”
The Mainstream Revival
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the heart of mainstream fashion in 2025 largely due to a chart-topping superstar. In the past few months, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The bedazzled bra and thong, feathered armbands and glittering headpiece were ideal for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift has company. This year, showgirl references have been embraced by pop stars including Sabrina Carpenter as they zoomed across world tours in sequins, strategic openings and feathers, highlighted against theatrical sets. Lipa’s stylist Lorenzo Posocco told a style publication he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the 50s, her performers wafted giant ostrich feather fans.
Pulling from History
Modern stars and other chart toppers also draw on historical entertainment forms, including classic theater and dance line references. The final look are poles apart from the late-century pop style of short shirts and baggy pants, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that were popular earlier.
But not everyone are convinced with this showgirl renaissance. An ex-showgirl, a former Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the early 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “employed as an umbrella term encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently modern pop stars.”
The Highly Sought-After Classic Style
For younger and modern stars, Mackie’s vintage 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 embellished dress created by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, Miley Cyrus paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn previously 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 favorite among collectors.
“The showgirl aesthetic evoke a sense of longing for a historical elegance,” says a historian, head of special collections at the a Las Vegas university, who studies the story of showgirls. “Now it is viewed as a sort of ‘acceptable’ appeal because it has been adapted. It has got all the elegance, the rhinestones and the glitter but without the bare skin.”
A Than Just Style: An Icon of Las Vegas
She says the showgirl image are key to the identity of Las Vegas. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was surrounded by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas does not host any showgirl-based productions, Chung says they are still used as an symbol of the city, appearing at corporate events and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a remaining figure of Vegas spectacle,” she says.
The Allure of Transformation
Hardy says the magical transformation of a showgirl is part of the attraction. It’s something Swift references in a recent documentary series that documents the backstage action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting rehearsals, workouts and countless performances across dozens of cities, each running for 3.5 hours.
She recalls her own stage routines as “comparable to completing an endurance race in heels every night”. Her headpiece was 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the stairs to the platform from the dressing rooms three floors below in the basement. I had to leave early for my moment so I could rest before I performed. One is perspiring the whole time but creating this image that it’s simple and gorgeous and dreamlike.”
Perhaps this is where the fascination of the showgirl fantasy really is found. In the complexity of 2025 there is a craving for a break from reality. Who better to emulate than these performers, who have always embodied fantasy, flawlessness and a realm where no one makes a mistake.
