After a 31-year run on the Las Vegas strip, the performers from the revue Jubilee! gave one last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The production, famous for its elaborate costumes designed by style icon Bob Mackie, came to an end due to dwindling audience numbers and unimpressed critics who labeled it a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Currently, roughly eight years later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl style, is back.
A Sultan of Glitz
Dubbed the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made theatrical stage sparkle his signature style, dressing everyone from Hollywood icons to Madonna. Recently, a “naked” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, well over its estimated price, while a silver and gold beaded bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more attractive for the emerging artists who is desiring something other than what they were accustomed to”, he told a newspaper. “Contemporary performers are embracing a theatrical, more spectacular, breathtaking, entrance-making statement.”
The Mainstream Resurgence
It’s a look that glided all the way to the centre of mainstream fashion in 2025 propelled by Taylor Swift. Recently, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s classic 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.
She is part of a trend. This year, showgirl inspirations have been adopted by music artists including Miley Cyrus as they danced across world tours in glitter, revealing designs and plumes, illuminated against overstated sets. Her fashion curator a fashion expert explained to Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the 50s, Lipa’s dancers waved giant ostrich feather fans.
Drawing from Tradition
Modern stars and other chart toppers also take inspiration from classic entertainment forms, including burlesque and ensemble 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 came before them.
But not everyone are on board with this glamour resurgence. An ex-showgirl, a ex- Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the early 2000s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “used as an umbrella term covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even today's icons.”
The Coveted Classic Look
For younger and modern stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, Zendaya gave a nod to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the actress wore a translucent embellished dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, Miley Cyrus paid an private amount to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn at an awards show to perform at the Grammys. In September, 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 bygone era of glitz,” says Su Kim Chung, head of special collections at the a Las Vegas university, who researches the history of showgirls. “Today it is seen as a sort of ‘toned-down’ appeal 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 Icon of Las Vegas
She says showgirls are central to the iconography of Las Vegas. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was surrounded by two showgirls. While Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-based productions, Jung says they are still used as an symbol of the city, showing up at conventions and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a enduring figure of Las Vegas glitz and glamour,” the expert says.
The Allure of Escape
Hardy says the complete change of a showgirl persona is part of the appeal. This is a notion Swift references in a new behind-the-scenes film that captures the backstage action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included intense practice sessions, gym sessions and countless shows across multiple nations, each running for 3.5 hours.
The performer explains her own showgirl performances as “similar to running a marathon in heels every night”. Her feathered headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the stairs to the platform from the green rooms three floors below in the basement. I had to head up ahead of time for my entrance so I could catch my breath before I made my entrance. You are perspiring the whole time but maintaining this fantasy that it’s effortless and beautiful and magical.”
It could be this is where the fascination of the showgirl fantasy really is found. In the complexity of 2025 there is a longing for fantasy. Who better to look to than these performers, who have always personified dreams, perfection and a realm where no one makes a mistake.
