After a three-decade stint on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the performers from the production Jubilee! executed their last choreographed kick in 2016. The extravaganza, renowned for its ornate costumes crafted by style icon Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to declining audience numbers and unimpressed reviewers who described it as a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Currently, roughly eight years later, showgirls, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is experiencing a revival.
The King of Glitz
Referred to as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glitz his signature style, dressing everyone from screen legends to music superstars. Recently, a “naked” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, seven times its projected value, while a metallic fringed bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more appealing for the younger performer who is looking for something other than what they grew up with”, he stated in an interview with a media outlet. “Contemporary performers are striving for a show-stopping, more theatrical, breathtaking, grand statement.”
The Pop Culture Revival
It’s a look that glided all the way to the epicenter of mainstream fashion in 2025 thanks to a global pop icon. Earlier this year, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, plumed armbands and shimmering headpiece were ideal for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift isn't alone. This year, showgirl inspirations have been embraced by singers including Dua Lipa as they whizzed across concert platforms in sequins, cut-outs and feathers, spotlighted against camp sets. A top stylist Lorenzo Posocco mentioned in an interview with Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the 1950s, her performers wafted giant feathered fans.
Pulling from History
Modern stars and other hitmakers also take inspiration from classic entertainment forms, including vaudeville and chorus line references. The final look are vastly different from the 1990s era Britney Spears era of revealing tops and baggy pants, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that came before them.
But some critics are convinced with this showgirl renaissance. A former performer, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “employed as an catch-all phrase encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently modern pop stars.”
A Coveted Vintage Style
For gen Z and millennial stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a famous actress honored to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actor wore a semi-sheer sequined dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, Miley Cyrus 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 retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among fashion collectors.
“This style evoke a sense of longing for a bygone era of glitz,” says an archivist, head of special collections at the University of Nevada, who documents the history of showgirls. “Now it is considered a sort of ‘acceptable’ sexy because it has been modified. It has got all the sophistication, the sparkles and the glitter but without the exposure.”
More Than Just Fashion: An Icon of the City
She says this figure are central to the imagery of Sin City. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was flanked by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas does not host any traditional showgirl productions, Chung says they are still featured as an logo of the city, being present at corporate events and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a lasting figure of Vegas spectacle,” Chung says.
The Allure of Illusion
The former showgirl says the complete change of a showgirl is part of the allure. This is a notion Swift hints at in a new behind-the-scenes film that documents the off-camera action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included intense rehearsals, training and numerous concerts across multiple nations, each running for 3.5 hours.
Hardy describes her own stage routines as “similar to completing an endurance race in high heels every night”. Her headpiece was 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the steps to the platform from the green rooms three floors below in the underground. I had to leave early for my moment so I could rest before I made my entrance. One is working hard the whole time but maintaining this fantasy that it’s effortless and beautiful and dreamlike.”
Maybe this is where the fascination of the showgirl really is found. In the complexity of 2025 there is a craving for fantasy. What better figure to look to than such icons, who have always represented dreams, idealism and a world where nobody misses a mark.
