Following a long-running run on the Las Vegas strip, the performers from the revue Jubilee! executed their last choreographed kick in 2016. The show, famous for its intricate costumes designed by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to dwindling audience numbers and critical commentators who labeled it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Now, nearly ten years later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl style, is back.
The Master of Glitz
Known as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made theatrical showgirl glamour his trademark look, clothing everyone from Marilyn Monroe to music superstars. In a recent auction, a “barely-there” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, well over its projected value, while a shimmering beaded bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more attractive for the new generation of stars who is desiring something other than what they grew up with”, he told a publication. “Today's artists are striving for a show-stopping, more dramatic, breathtaking, memorable statement.”
The Mainstream Resurgence
It’s a look that glided all the way to the centre of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 propelled by a chart-topping superstar. In the past few months, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The crystal-covered bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and shimmering headpiece were ideal for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift has company. This year, glamorous nods have been adopted by singers including Dua Lipa as they danced across arena stages in sequins, revealing designs and feathers, highlighted against camp sets. A top stylist her creative director explained to a style publication he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the 1950s, the backup dancers fluttered giant plumed accessories.
Drawing from Tradition
These artists and other successful musicians also reference historical performances, including classic theater and chorus line references. The final look are worlds away from the 1990s era Britney Spears era of short shirts and utilitarian trousers, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that came before them.
But not everyone are convinced with this showgirl renaissance. Nancy Hardy, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “treated as an catch-all phrase encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even modern pop stars.”
A Coveted Classic Look
For gen Z and millennial stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a style icon honored to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the star wore a translucent beaded dress made by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, Miley Cyrus paid an private amount to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn previously to perform at the Grammys. In September, the singer wore a collection of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among collectors.
“This style inspire fond memories for a historical elegance,” says a historian, an expert at the University of Nevada, who studies the story of showgirls. “Now it is seen as a sort of ‘acceptable’ appeal because it has been updated. It has got all the elegance, the crystals and the shine but without the bare skin.”
A Than Simply Style: An Icon of Vegas
The expert says this figure are key to the identity of Sin City. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was accompanied by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas does not host any traditional showgirl productions, Chung says they are still employed as an logo of the city, appearing at corporate events and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a lasting figure of Vegas spectacle,” Chung says.
An Allure of Illusion
Hardy says the transformative effect of a showgirl persona is part of the allure. This is a notion Taylor Swift hints at in a recent docuseries that captures the off-camera action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting practice sessions, workouts and countless performances across 21 countries, each running for 3.5 hours.
She explains her own nights in the spotlight as “similar to completing an endurance race in heels every night”. Her headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the stairs to the performance area from the dressing rooms three floors below in the basement. I had to leave early for my moment so I could recover before I made my entrance. You are perspiring the whole time but crafting this illusion that it’s effortless and gorgeous and magical.”
It could be this is where the fascination of the showgirl fantasy really resides. In the complexity of 2025 there is a longing for a break from reality. Is there anyone better to turn to than showgirls, who have always personified fantasy, idealism and a world where no one falters.
