Following a 31-year tenure on the iconic Vegas strip, the showgirls from the spectacle Jubilee! took a final perfectly timed kick in 2016. The show, famous for its ornate costumes created by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to falling audience numbers and unimpressed reviewers who called it a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Now, almost a decade later, the showgirl persona, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is back.
The Sultan of Sequins
Dubbed the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made over-the-top showgirl glamour his defining aesthetic, clothing everyone from screen legends to Madonna. In a recent auction, a “barely-there” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, seven times its estimated price, while a silver and gold fringed bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more enticing for the emerging artists who is looking for something other than what they were accustomed to”, he told a media outlet. “Contemporary performers are embracing a glamorous, more theatrical, show-stopping, memorable statement.”
The Mainstream Comeback
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the heart of mainstream fashion in 2025 propelled by 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, plumed armbands and shimmering headpiece were perfect for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer has company. This year, glamorous nods have been incorporated by pop stars including Miley Cyrus as they whizzed across arena stages in glitter, cut-outs and plumes, illuminated against overstated sets. Lipa’s stylist Lorenzo Posocco explained to a style publication he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the 1950s, her performers waved giant feathered fans.
Drawing from Tradition
Lipa, Carpenter and other chart toppers also take inspiration from 19th-century performances, including vaudeville and dance line references. The results are vastly different from the 1990s era pop style of revealing tops and cargo pants, and street-style dance moves that came before them.
But not everyone are enthusiastic with this glamour resurgence. An ex-showgirl, a former Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the 2000s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “used as an catch-all phrase including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly today's icons.”
The Coveted Retro Style
For gen Z and modern stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a famous actress honored to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the actress wore a semi-sheer sequined dress made by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, another pop star paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn earlier in the year 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 popular item among collectors.
“Showgirls inspire a sense of longing for a bygone era of glitz,” says a historian, an expert at the a Las Vegas university, who studies the legacy of showgirls. “Today it is viewed as a sort of ‘safe’ allure because it has been updated. It has got all the elegance, the sparkles and the sparkle but without the nudity.”
More Than Just Fashion: An Icon of the City
The expert says showgirls are key to the imagery of Sin City. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was accompanied by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas does not host any showgirl-based productions, Chung says they are still featured as an logo of the city, being present at corporate events and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a enduring figure of Las Vegas glamour,” she says.
An Allure of Transformation
Hardy says the complete change of a showgirl persona is part of the allure. It’s something Swift references in a new docuseries that shows the behind-the-scenes action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included intense rehearsals, training and numerous performances across 21 countries, each lasting 3.5 hours.
The performer explains her own stage routines as “comparable to completing an endurance race in heels every night”. Her headpiece tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the staircase to the performance area from the green rooms three floors below in the lower level. I had to head up ahead of time for my cue so I could recover before I performed. One is sweating the whole time but creating this image that it’s simple and stunning and ethereal.”
Maybe this is where the appeal of the showgirl really resides. In the chaos of 2025 there is a craving for escapism. What better figure to turn to than showgirls, who have always personified dreams, flawlessness and a realm where nobody makes a mistake.
