After a three-decade stint on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the dancers from the revue Jubilee! took a final perfectly timed kick in 2016. The extravaganza, renowned for its elaborate costumes designed by style icon Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to dwindling audience numbers and critical reviewers who called it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Today, nearly ten years later, the showgirl, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is back.
A Master of Sparkle
Known as the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made over-the-top showgirl glamour his defining aesthetic, outfitting everyone from Marilyn Monroe to pop royalty. Earlier this month, a “naked” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, seven times its estimated price, while a silver and gold tasseled bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more enticing for the emerging artists who is desiring something other than what they grew up with”, he stated in an interview with a media outlet. “Contemporary performers are embracing a glamorous, more spectacular, show-stopping, grand statement.”
The Mainstream Revival
It’s a look that glided all the way to the heart of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 largely due to Taylor Swift. Earlier this year, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The bedazzled bra and thong, plumed armbands and glittering headpiece were ideal for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
She is part of a trend. This year, showgirl references have been adopted by singers including Sabrina Carpenter as they whizzed across world tours in sparkles, revealing designs and feathers, highlighted against camp sets. Her fashion curator a fashion expert told Vogue he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the 50s, the backup dancers fluttered giant feathered fans.
Drawing from History
Lipa, Carpenter and other hitmakers also take inspiration from classic entertainment forms, including classic theater and ensemble references. The results are vastly different from the 1990s era Britney Spears era of crop tops and baggy pants, and street-style dance moves that were popular earlier.
But not everyone are enthusiastic with this glamour resurgence. An ex-showgirl, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the early 2000s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word term is being “employed as an catch-all phrase encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly modern pop stars.”
A Highly Sought-After Retro Style
For millennial and young adult stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become incredibly sought-after. In 2024, Zendaya paid tribute to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the actor wore a see-through beaded dress made 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 tasseled mini dress she had worn previously to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a series of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a favorite among vintage enthusiasts.
“The showgirl aesthetic evoke a sense of longing for a bygone era of glitz,” says Su Kim Chung, head of special collections at the an academic institution, who studies the story of showgirls. “Currently it is viewed as a sort of ‘toned-down’ allure because it has been modified. It has got all the elegance, the sparkles and the sparkle but without the bare skin.”
A Than Simply Fashion: An Symbol of Las Vegas
Chung says showgirls are integral to the imagery of Vegas. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was accompanied by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-based productions, the historian says they are still featured as an logo of the city, appearing at corporate events and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a lasting symbol of Vegas glitz and glamour,” she says.
An Allure of Escape
Nancy Hardy says the transformative effect of a showgirl is part of the allure. This is a notion Taylor Swift alludes to in a latest docuseries that shows the off-camera action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included intense preparations, training and numerous performances across multiple nations, each running for 3.5 hours.
She recalls her own stage routines as “comparable to extreme physical exertion in heels every night”. Her headpiece was 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the steps to the platform from the backstage area three floors below in the lower level. I had to start early for my cue so I could rest before I performed. You are working hard the whole time but creating this illusion that it’s easy and beautiful and ethereal.”
It could be this is where the fascination of the showgirl fantasy really resides. In the busyness of 2025 there is a longing for a break from reality. What better figure to emulate than these performers, who have always personified dreams, flawlessness and a world where nobody makes a mistake.
