After a long-running run on the Las Vegas strip, the dancers from the production Jubilee! gave one last synchronised kick in 2016. The extravaganza, renowned for its intricate costumes designed by style icon Bob Mackie, ended its run due to falling audience numbers and disappointed critics who described it as a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Now, nearly ten years later, showgirls, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is experiencing a revival.
The King of Glitz
Dubbed the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glamour his signature style, dressing everyone from screen legends to music superstars. In a recent auction, a “see-through” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, seven times its initial estimate, while a metallic tasseled bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more attractive for the new generation of stars who is desiring something other than what they knew from childhood”, he told a publication. “New stars are striving for a show-stopping, more spectacular, attention-grabbing, entrance-making statement.”
The Musical Resurgence
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the centre of popular culture in 2025 largely due to a global pop icon. Earlier this year, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The bedazzled bra and thong, plumed armbands and glittering headpiece were perfect for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
She isn't alone. This year, showgirl references have been incorporated by music artists including Miley Cyrus as they danced across world tours in glitter, cut-outs and ostrich feathers, highlighted against camp sets. Her fashion curator a fashion expert told a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the 1950s, the backup dancers fluttered giant plumed accessories.
Drawing from History
Lipa, Carpenter and other successful musicians also draw on 19th-century entertainment forms, including burlesque and ensemble references. The outcome are vastly different from the 90s teen pop of crop tops and utilitarian trousers, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that came before them.
But not everyone are convinced with this showgirl revival. Nancy Hardy, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “used as an broad label encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even today's icons.”
The Highly Sought-After Vintage Style
For gen Z and young adult stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, Zendaya honored to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actress wore a translucent sequined dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, a singer paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn at an awards show 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.
“The showgirl aesthetic inspire nostalgia for a historical elegance,” says Su Kim Chung, a curator at the an academic institution, who studies the legacy of showgirls. “Today it is seen as a sort of ‘acceptable’ sexy because it has been adapted. It has got all the glamour, the rhinestones and the sparkle but without the nudity.”
A Than Simply Style: An Icon of Las Vegas
Chung says showgirls are integral to the identity of Sin City. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was surrounded by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas no longer has any traditional showgirl productions, Jung says they are still used as an emblem of the city, showing up at gatherings and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a lasting symbol of Vegas glamour,” Chung says.
The Allure of Escape
The former showgirl says the complete change of a showgirl is part of the appeal. This idea Swift hints at in a recent docuseries that captures the off-camera action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling rehearsals, workouts and countless concerts across dozens of cities, each going on for 3.5 hours.
She explains her own stage routines as “like extreme physical exertion in high heels every night”. Her headdress was 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the stairs to the platform from the green rooms three floors below in the lower level. I had to start early for my entrance so I could recover before I performed. You’re sweating the whole time but maintaining this image that it’s easy and beautiful and magical.”
It could be this is where the fascination of the showgirl fantasy really lies. In the chaos of 2025 there is a desire for escapism. Is there anyone better to look to than these performers, who have always personified dreams, perfection and a realm where no one misses a mark.
