After a long-running tenure on the Las Vegas strip, the performers from the spectacle Jubilee! executed their last synchronised kick in 2016. The production, famous for its elaborate costumes designed by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to declining audience numbers and unimpressed reviewers who labeled it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Currently, nearly ten years later, the showgirl persona, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is making a comeback.
A King of Sequins
Referred to as the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glamour his defining aesthetic, outfitting everyone from screen legends to music superstars. In a recent auction, a “see-through” 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 performance sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more enticing for the younger performer who is looking for something other than what they were accustomed to”, he told a media outlet. “Contemporary performers are pushing toward a theatrical, more theatrical, breathtaking, grand statement.”
The Pop Culture Resurgence
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the centre of mainstream fashion in 2025 thanks to Taylor Swift. Earlier this year, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, plumed armbands and shimmering headpiece were ideal for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer has company. This year, showgirl references have been incorporated by pop stars including Sabrina Carpenter as they whizzed across arena stages in glitter, revealing designs and plumes, highlighted against camp sets. Her fashion curator her creative director told a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the 1950s, Lipa’s dancers fluttered giant feathered fans.
Pulling from the Past
Lipa, Carpenter and other hitmakers also draw on historical entertainment forms, including burlesque and dance line references. The outcome are worlds away from the late-century pop style of revealing tops and utilitarian trousers, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that preceded this trend.
But some critics are on board with this showgirl revival. A former performer, a former Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the early 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “employed as an umbrella term covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even today's icons.”
A Highly Sought-After Retro Style
For younger and young adult stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, Zendaya gave a nod to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the star wore a translucent embellished dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, another pop star paid an significant price to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn previously 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 bring about fond memories for a past glamour,” says a historian, head of special collections at the a Las Vegas university, who studies the story of showgirls. “Currently it is viewed as a sort of ‘safe’ allure because it has been adapted. It has got all the glamour, the crystals and the glitter but without the nudity.”
More Than Just Style: An Icon of Las Vegas
She says showgirls are integral to the iconography of Las Vegas. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was accompanied by two showgirls. While Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-based productions, Jung says they are still featured as an symbol of the city, being present at corporate events and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a lasting symbol of Vegas spectacle,” Chung says.
An Allure of Escape
The former showgirl says the complete change of a showgirl persona is part of the appeal. It’s something the singer alludes to in a latest documentary series that shows the behind-the-scenes action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting rehearsals, workouts and 149 shows across multiple nations, each running for 3.5 hours.
She recalls her own showgirl performances as “like running a marathon in high heels every night”. Her headpiece weighed 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the steps to the platform from the dressing rooms three floors below in the underground. I had to leave early for my moment so I could recover before I performed. You are working hard the whole time but creating this fantasy that it’s easy and stunning and magical.”
Maybe this is where the true allure of the showgirl really resides. In the chaos of 2025 there is a desire for a break from reality. What better figure to emulate than showgirls, who have always embodied fantasy, perfection and a world where nobody makes a mistake.
