After a long-running run on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the performers from the production Jubilee! took a final choreographed kick in 2016. The production, renowned for its intricate costumes crafted by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, ended its run due to dwindling audience numbers and unimpressed commentators who labeled it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Currently, almost a decade later, the showgirl persona, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is making a comeback.
The Sultan of Sequins
Dubbed the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made dramatic stage sparkle his signature style, clothing everyone from Hollywood icons to music superstars. Earlier this month, a “see-through” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, seven times its projected value, while a silver and gold fringed bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more attractive for the younger performer who is desiring something other than what they grew up with”, he stated in an interview with a media outlet. “New stars are embracing a glamorous, more spectacular, breathtaking, entrance-making statement.”
A Pop Culture Revival
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the centre of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 largely due to Taylor Swift. Earlier this year, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The bedazzled bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and sparkly headpiece were tailor-made for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
She isn't alone. This year, showgirl references have been embraced by music artists including Dua Lipa as they zoomed across world tours in sparkles, revealing designs and plumes, highlighted against theatrical 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 50s, her performers wafted giant ostrich feather fans.
Pulling from History
Lipa, Carpenter and other hitmakers also take inspiration from classic entertainment forms, including burlesque and dance line references. The results are poles apart from the 1990s era Britney Spears era of revealing tops and utilitarian trousers, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that were popular earlier.
But not everyone are convinced with this showgirl revival. Nancy Hardy, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the 00s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “used as an broad label covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even modern pop stars.”
The Coveted Retro Style
For younger and millennial stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a style icon gave a nod to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actor wore a semi-sheer beaded dress made by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, another pop star paid an significant price to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn earlier in the year 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 popular item among fashion collectors.
“The showgirl aesthetic bring about nostalgia for a past glamour,” says Su Kim Chung, an expert at the University of Nevada, who documents the history of showgirls. “Today it is seen as a sort of ‘safe’ allure because it has been adapted. It has got all the elegance, the sparkles and the glitter but without the bare skin.”
More Than Simply Style: An Symbol of Las Vegas
The expert says the showgirl image are central to the imagery of Las Vegas. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was accompanied by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas does not host any traditional showgirl productions, Jung says they are still employed as an symbol of the city, appearing at corporate events and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a lasting figure of Las Vegas glitz and glamour,” Chung says.
The Allure of Escape
The former showgirl says the complete change of a showgirl is part of the appeal. This is a notion the singer references in a latest docuseries that shows the backstage action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting rehearsals, workouts and 149 concerts across dozens of cities, each going on for 3.5 hours.
The performer explains her own nights in the spotlight as “like running a marathon in stilettos every night”. Her headdress was 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the staircase to the performance area from the green rooms three floors below in the basement. I had to start early for my cue so I could rest before I performed. One is perspiring the whole time but crafting this image that it’s effortless and beautiful and magical.”
Perhaps this is where the appeal of the showgirl really resides. In the complexity of 2025 there is a desire for escapism. Is there anyone better to look to than such icons, who have always embodied dreams, flawlessness and a world where no one misses a mark.