After a three-decade run on the Las Vegas strip, the performers from the spectacle Jubilee! executed their last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The show, renowned for its ornate costumes created by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, came to an end due to dwindling audience numbers and critical reviewers who described it as a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Now, almost a decade later, the showgirl, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is back.
A King of Sequins
Known as the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made over-the-top stage sparkle his signature style, dressing everyone from screen legends to pop royalty. In a recent auction, a “barely-there” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, seven times its initial estimate, while a silver and gold fringed bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more enticing for the new generation of stars who is desiring something other than what they grew up with”, he stated in an interview with a newspaper. “New stars are embracing a show-stopping, more dramatic, attention-grabbing, grand statement.”
The Musical Comeback
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the epicenter 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 original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The bedazzled bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and shimmering headpiece were tailor-made for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift isn't alone. This year, glamorous nods have been incorporated by singers including Sabrina Carpenter as they whizzed across arena stages in sparkles, cut-outs and ostrich feathers, highlighted against overstated sets. A top stylist a fashion expert explained to Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the 1950s, her performers fluttered giant plumed accessories.
Drawing from History
Lipa, Carpenter and other successful musicians also take inspiration from classic performances, including vaudeville and chorus line references. The outcome are worlds away from the 1990s era teen pop of short shirts and utilitarian trousers, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that preceded this trend.
But some critics are enthusiastic with this glamour resurgence. Nancy Hardy, a ex- Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the 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 even modern pop stars.”
The Highly Sought-After Retro Look
For gen Z and millennial stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a style icon honored to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the star wore a semi-sheer embellished dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, a singer paid an significant price to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn previously to perform at the Grammys. In September, the singer wore a series of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among vintage enthusiasts.
“This style evoke a sense of longing for a bygone era of glitz,” says a historian, an expert at the University of Nevada, who documents the legacy of showgirls. “Currently it is viewed as a sort of ‘toned-down’ appeal because it has been updated. It has got all the elegance, the rhinestones and the sparkle but without the nudity.”
A Than Just Style: An Icon of Las Vegas
She says this figure are central to the iconography of Las 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-based productions, the historian says they are still featured as an logo of the city, appearing at corporate events and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a remaining symbol of Vegas glitz and glamour,” Chung says.
An Allure of Illusion
The former showgirl says the transformative effect of a stage character is part of the appeal. It’s something Swift alludes to in a latest documentary series that captures the behind-the-scenes action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included intense preparations, training and 149 performances across multiple nations, each running for 3.5 hours.
The performer explains her own stage routines as “like extreme physical exertion in stilettos every night”. Her feathered headdress tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the stairs to the platform from the green rooms 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 performed. One is sweating the whole time but crafting this image that it’s easy and stunning and dreamlike.”
Maybe this is where the appeal of the showgirl really is found. In the chaos of 2025 there is a desire for a break from reality. What better figure to turn to than these performers, who have always embodied dreams, perfection and a world where nobody falters.
