After a 31-year run on the iconic Vegas strip, the dancers from the revue Jubilee! took a final synchronised kick in 2016. The show, renowned for its ornate costumes crafted by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, came to an end due to dwindling audience numbers and disappointed critics who described it as a spectacle “trapped in time”.
Currently, roughly eight years later, showgirls, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is back.
The King of Glitz
Dubbed the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made dramatic stage sparkle his signature style, clothing everyone from Marilyn Monroe to music superstars. Recently, a “barely-there” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, seven times its estimated price, while a shimmering beaded bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more attractive for the emerging artists who is seeking something other than what they were accustomed to”, he told a newspaper. “Today's artists are embracing a show-stopping, more dramatic, breathtaking, grand statement.”
A Pop Culture Revival
It’s a look that glided all the way to the heart of popular culture in 2025 thanks to a global pop icon. In the past few months, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The crystal-covered bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and sparkly headpiece were tailor-made for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift has company. This year, showgirl references have been adopted by singers including Dua Lipa as they zoomed across arena stages in sparkles, revealing designs and ostrich feathers, spotlighted against overstated sets. Her fashion curator a fashion expert mentioned in an interview with a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the 50s, Lipa’s dancers fluttered giant plumed accessories.
Drawing from Tradition
Modern stars and other hitmakers also draw on 19th-century entertainment forms, including burlesque and ensemble references. The final look are worlds away from the 90s Britney Spears era of short shirts and baggy pants, and street-style dance moves that were popular earlier.
But certain observers are on board with this glamour resurgence. A former performer, a former Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the early 2000s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word term is being “employed as an umbrella term covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even Taylor Swift.”
The Coveted Classic Style
For younger and young adult stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become incredibly sought-after. In 2024, a style icon gave a nod to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actress wore a semi-sheer embellished dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, a singer 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 series of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among vintage enthusiasts.
“The showgirl aesthetic inspire a sense of longing for a bygone era of glitz,” says a historian, an expert at the a Las Vegas university, who researches the story of showgirls. “Now it is seen as a sort of ‘toned-down’ appeal because it has been adapted. It has got all the glamour, the rhinestones and the glitter but without the bare skin.”
More Than Just Style: An Icon of the City
The expert says the showgirl image are key to the imagery of Vegas. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was surrounded by two showgirls. While Las Vegas currently lacks any traditional showgirl productions, the historian says they are still featured as an symbol of the city, being present at conventions and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a enduring symbol of Las Vegas glitz and glamour,” the expert says.
An Allure of Transformation
Nancy Hardy says the magical transformation of a showgirl persona is part of the attraction. This idea Taylor Swift references in a latest documentary series that captures the backstage action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting practice sessions, training and numerous performances across dozens of cities, each lasting 3.5 hours.
She describes her own stage routines as “similar to running a marathon in stilettos every night”. Her feathered headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the stairs to the stage from the green rooms three floors below in the basement. I had to head up ahead of time for my moment so I could recover before I performed. One is perspiring the whole time but maintaining this illusion that it’s effortless and stunning and ethereal.”
Maybe this is where the appeal of the showgirl fantasy really resides. In the busyness of 2025 there is a longing for fantasy. Is there anyone better to look to than showgirls, who have always represented fantasy, flawlessness and a universe where no one misses a mark.
