After a three-decade tenure on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the dancers from the production Jubilee! gave one last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The show, known for its elaborate costumes designed by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to declining audience numbers and critical commentators who called it a spectacle “trapped in time”.
Now, roughly eight years later, the showgirl, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is making a comeback.
The King of Sequins
Dubbed the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made theatrical showgirl glitz his signature style, clothing everyone from Marilyn Monroe to pop royalty. In a recent auction, a “see-through” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, seven times its estimated price, while a shimmering fringed bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more appealing for the new generation of stars who is desiring something other than what they were accustomed to”, he stated in an interview with a media outlet. “New stars are pushing toward a theatrical, more spectacular, show-stopping, entrance-making statement.”
The Mainstream Resurgence
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the epicenter of mainstream fashion in 2025 largely due to a global pop icon. Earlier this year, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, plumed armbands and glittering headpiece were tailor-made for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
She is part of a trend. This year, glamorous nods have been embraced by singers including Miley Cyrus as they danced across world tours in sparkles, strategic openings and plumes, spotlighted against camp sets. Lipa’s stylist Lorenzo Posocco told a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the 1950s, Lipa’s dancers waved giant plumed accessories.
Pulling from History
Lipa, Carpenter and other successful musicians also take inspiration from classic entertainment forms, including classic theater and dance line references. The results are vastly different from the 1990s era pop style of crop tops and cargo pants, and urban dance moves that came before them.
But not everyone are on board with this glamour resurgence. A former performer, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the early 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word term is being “used as an umbrella term including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even Taylor Swift.”
A Coveted Retro Look
For younger and millennial stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a style icon honored to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actress wore a see-through beaded dress made by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, Miley Cyrus paid an significant price to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn earlier in the year to perform at the Grammys. In September, Sabrina Carpenter wore a series of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among collectors.
“The showgirl aesthetic bring about fond memories for a bygone era of glitz,” says an archivist, a curator at the University of Nevada, who studies the legacy of showgirls. “Today it is viewed as a sort of ‘acceptable’ sexy because it has been updated. It has got all the elegance, the rhinestones and the sparkle but without the bare skin.”
A Than Simply Style: An Icon of Las Vegas
Chung says showgirls are key to the imagery of Sin City. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was accompanied by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas currently lacks any traditional showgirl productions, Chung says they are still featured as an symbol of the city, being present at conventions and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a enduring icon of Vegas spectacle,” the expert says.
The Allure of Escape
Hardy says the transformative effect of a showgirl is part of the allure. It’s something Swift hints at in a new docuseries that captures the behind-the-scenes action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included intense practice sessions, workouts and countless performances across 21 countries, each lasting 3.5 hours.
The performer describes her own stage routines as “like running a marathon in high heels every night”. Her headdress tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the staircase to the performance area from the dressing rooms three floors below in the underground. I had to leave early for my moment so I could catch my breath before I went on stage. You are working hard the whole time but crafting this image that it’s easy and gorgeous and magical.”
It could be this is where the true allure of the showgirl really lies. In the busyness of 2025 there is a longing for fantasy. Is there anyone better to turn to than such icons, who have always represented make-believe, flawlessness and a realm where nobody falters.
