After a long-running tenure on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the showgirls from the revue Jubilee! took a final choreographed kick in 2016. The extravaganza, known for its intricate costumes designed by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, came to an end due to declining audience numbers and critical commentators who described it as a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Currently, roughly eight years later, showgirls, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is back.
A Sultan of Glitz
Known as the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glitz his defining aesthetic, outfitting everyone from Marilyn Monroe to music superstars. In a recent auction, a “see-through” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, well over its projected value, while a shimmering tasseled bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more enticing for the emerging artists who is looking for something other than what they were accustomed to”, he explained to a publication. “Contemporary performers are pushing toward a theatrical, more theatrical, breathtaking, memorable statement.”
The Mainstream Comeback
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the heart of popular culture in 2025 largely due to Taylor Swift. In the past few months, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, plumed armbands and glittering headpiece were perfect for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift has company. This year, showgirl inspirations have been embraced by pop stars including Sabrina Carpenter as they danced across arena stages in glitter, cut-outs and plumes, spotlighted against theatrical sets. A top stylist a fashion expert told a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the 1950s, Lipa’s dancers fluttered giant ostrich feather fans.
Drawing from the Past
These artists and other successful musicians also reference historical entertainment forms, including vaudeville and ensemble references. The outcome are worlds away from the 1990s era teen pop of short shirts and utilitarian trousers, and urban dance moves that preceded this trend.
But some critics are convinced with this glamour resurgence. Nancy Hardy, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the 2000s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “employed as an catch-all phrase encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even Taylor Swift.”
A Highly Sought-After Classic Style
For gen Z and millennial stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a famous actress gave a nod to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the star wore a translucent embellished dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, another pop star paid an significant price to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn at an awards show to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a trio of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among vintage enthusiasts.
“Showgirls inspire fond memories for a past glamour,” says a historian, head of special collections at the a Las Vegas university, who researches the history of showgirls. “Currently it is seen as a sort of ‘toned-down’ appeal because it has been adapted. It has got all the elegance, the crystals and the sparkle but without the bare skin.”
More Than Simply Style: An Symbol of Las Vegas
She says this figure are central to the imagery of Sin City. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was flanked by two showgirls. While Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-centric productions, Chung says they are still employed as an logo of the city, showing up at conventions and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a lasting icon of Vegas glamour,” she says.
The Allure of Escape
The former showgirl says the magical transformation of a showgirl is part of the attraction. This idea the singer hints at in a new docuseries that captures the behind-the-scenes action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling practice sessions, gym sessions and countless concerts across multiple nations, each going on for 3.5 hours.
The performer explains her own stage routines as “similar to extreme physical exertion in stilettos every night”. Her headpiece weighed 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the staircase to the platform from the dressing rooms three floors below in the underground. I had to start early for my moment so I could catch my breath before I made my entrance. One is working hard the whole time but crafting this illusion that it’s effortless and gorgeous and dreamlike.”
Perhaps this is where the fascination of the showgirl really resides. In the complexity of 2025 there is a longing for a break from reality. What better figure to look to than showgirls, who have always personified fantasy, idealism and a universe where nobody makes a mistake.
