Following a long-running stint on the Las Vegas strip, the dancers from the spectacle Jubilee! executed their last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The extravaganza, known for its intricate costumes created by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to falling audience numbers and unimpressed commentators who labeled it a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Today, roughly eight years later, showgirls, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is back.
A Sultan of Glitz
Referred to as the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made dramatic stage sparkle his trademark look, clothing everyone from screen legends to pop royalty. Earlier this month, a “barely-there” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, seven times its projected value, while a metallic fringed bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more enticing for the emerging artists who is looking for something other than what they were accustomed to”, he explained to a newspaper. “New stars are embracing a glamorous, more dramatic, show-stopping, entrance-making statement.”
A Mainstream Revival
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the heart of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 propelled by a global pop icon. In the past few months, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The bedazzled bra and thong, plumed armbands and sparkly headpiece were ideal for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift has company. This year, glamorous nods have been incorporated by pop stars including Sabrina Carpenter as they whizzed across concert platforms in sparkles, revealing designs and feathers, illuminated against camp sets. A top stylist her creative director explained to Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the 1950s, the backup dancers wafted giant feathered fans.
Drawing from Tradition
Lipa, Carpenter and other successful musicians also take inspiration from classic entertainment forms, including burlesque and dance line references. The results are vastly different from the late-century Britney Spears era of short shirts and baggy pants, and urban dance moves that preceded this trend.
But some critics are on board with this showgirl renaissance. Nancy Hardy, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the 2000s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word term is being “employed as an umbrella term including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even Taylor Swift.”
The Coveted Vintage Look
For gen Z and millennial stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a famous actress paid tribute to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actor wore a semi-sheer sequined dress created by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, a singer paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn previously to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a collection of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among fashion collectors.
“The showgirl aesthetic evoke nostalgia for a past glamour,” says Su Kim Chung, a curator at the University of Nevada, who studies the history of showgirls. “Today it is viewed as a sort of ‘acceptable’ appeal because it has been updated. It has got all the elegance, the sparkles and the sparkle but without the nudity.”
More Than Just Style: An Symbol of the City
The expert says the showgirl image are central to the imagery of Las Vegas. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was flanked by two showgirls. While Las Vegas currently lacks any traditional showgirl productions, the historian says they are still employed as an logo of the city, being present at gatherings and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a lasting icon of Las Vegas glitz and glamour,” she says.
The Appeal of Illusion
The former showgirl says the magical transformation of a showgirl is part of the appeal. It’s something Swift alludes to in a latest behind-the-scenes film that shows the backstage action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included intense rehearsals, training and countless shows across dozens of cities, each running for 3.5 hours.
The performer explains her own showgirl performances as “comparable to completing an endurance race in heels every night”. Her headpiece weighed 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the staircase to the stage from the green rooms three floors below in the underground. I had to leave early for my cue so I could rest before I made my entrance. One is sweating the whole time but crafting this illusion that it’s effortless and beautiful and dreamlike.”
Maybe this is where the appeal of the showgirl fantasy really resides. In the complexity of 2025 there is a craving for a break from reality. Who better to emulate than such icons, who have always personified fantasy, idealism and a world where nobody falters.
