After a three-decade tenure on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the performers from the revue Jubilee! executed their last choreographed kick in 2016. The production, known for its elaborate costumes created by style icon Bob Mackie, ended its run due to declining audience numbers and disappointed critics who described it as a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Today, nearly ten years later, the showgirl persona, or at least the showgirl style, is experiencing a revival.
A King of Glitz
Referred to as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glamour his defining aesthetic, dressing everyone from Hollywood icons to Madonna. In a recent auction, a “naked” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, seven times its projected value, while a shimmering beaded bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more enticing for the new generation of stars who is seeking something other than what they knew from childhood”, he explained to a media outlet. “New stars are pushing toward a theatrical, more theatrical, attention-grabbing, memorable statement.”
The Mainstream Revival
It’s a look that glided all the way to the centre of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 largely due to a chart-topping superstar. Earlier this year, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, feathered armbands and sparkly headpiece were perfect for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
She is part of a trend. This year, glamorous nods have been incorporated by pop stars including Miley Cyrus as they whizzed across concert platforms in sparkles, strategic openings and feathers, illuminated against theatrical sets. A top stylist a fashion expert told Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the 1950s, her performers waved giant plumed accessories.
Drawing from the Past
These artists and other hitmakers also reference classic entertainment forms, including burlesque and chorus line references. The outcome are poles apart from the 1990s era teen pop of revealing tops and utilitarian trousers, and street-style dance moves that were popular earlier.
But not everyone are enthusiastic with this showgirl renaissance. A former performer, a former Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the 2000s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word term is being “employed as an catch-all phrase covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly today's icons.”
A Highly Sought-After Vintage Look
For gen Z and millennial stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a style icon honored to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the star wore a see-through beaded dress created by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, a singer paid an significant price to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn at an awards show to perform at the Grammys. In September, Sabrina Carpenter wore a trio of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among collectors.
“This style inspire nostalgia for a past glamour,” says Su Kim Chung, an expert at the an academic institution, who researches the history of showgirls. “Today it is viewed as a sort of ‘toned-down’ appeal because it has been adapted. It has got all the sophistication, the crystals and the sparkle but without the nudity.”
A Than Just Fashion: An Icon of the City
Chung says the showgirl image are key to the iconography of Vegas. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was accompanied by two showgirls. While Las Vegas does not host any showgirl-based productions, Chung says they are still featured as an symbol of the city, appearing at conventions and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a lasting symbol of Vegas glitz and glamour,” Chung says.
The Allure of Illusion
The former showgirl says the transformative effect of a showgirl persona is part of the appeal. It’s something Swift alludes to in a recent docuseries that shows the behind-the-scenes action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included intense practice sessions, gym sessions and countless performances across 21 countries, each running for 3.5 hours.
She explains her own stage routines as “like completing an endurance race in heels every night”. Her feathered headdress was 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the steps to the platform from the dressing rooms three floors below in the underground. I had to leave early for my entrance so I could rest before I went on stage. You’re perspiring the whole time but maintaining this fantasy that it’s effortless and beautiful and dreamlike.”
Perhaps this is where the fascination of the showgirl fantasy really is found. In the complexity of 2025 there is a desire for a break from reality. Who better to turn to than such icons, who have always personified dreams, flawlessness and a realm where nobody misses a mark.
