Following a three-decade tenure on the Las Vegas strip, the dancers from the production Jubilee! took a final synchronised kick in 2016. The show, renowned for its elaborate costumes designed by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, came to an end due to dwindling audience numbers and unimpressed critics who described it as a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Today, roughly eight years later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl style, is back.
The Master of Glitz
Dubbed the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made over-the-top showgirl glitz his defining aesthetic, dressing everyone from Marilyn Monroe to Madonna. Earlier this month, a “naked” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, well over its initial estimate, while a shimmering fringed bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more attractive for the emerging artists who is seeking something other than what they grew up with”, he told a media outlet. “Today's artists are striving for a show-stopping, more dramatic, breathtaking, memorable statement.”
A Musical Comeback
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the heart of mainstream fashion in 2025 propelled by Taylor Swift. In the past few months, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The bedazzled bra and thong, plumed armbands and glittering headpiece were ideal for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
She has company. This year, showgirl inspirations have been incorporated by singers including Sabrina Carpenter as they danced across arena stages in glitter, revealing designs and plumes, highlighted against theatrical sets. A top stylist her creative director told a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the mid-century, her performers fluttered giant plumed accessories.
Pulling from Tradition
Modern stars and other successful musicians also draw on historical performances, including burlesque and dance line references. The outcome are worlds away from the 90s Britney Spears era of crop tops and utilitarian trousers, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that came before them.
But some critics are on board with this glamour resurgence. 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 “employed as an umbrella term including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly today's icons.”
The Highly Sought-After Vintage Look
For gen Z and modern stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a famous actress honored to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the actress wore a translucent sequined dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, a singer paid an significant price to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn previously to perform at the Grammys. In September, Sabrina Carpenter wore a series of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among vintage enthusiasts.
“This style bring about a sense of longing for a past glamour,” says Su Kim Chung, an expert at the an academic institution, who researches the story of showgirls. “Currently it is considered a sort of ‘acceptable’ sexy because it has been updated. It has got all the sophistication, the rhinestones and the sparkle but without the exposure.”
A Than Simply Style: An Symbol of Vegas
She says showgirls are integral to the identity of Vegas. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was accompanied by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-centric productions, Jung says they are still employed as an symbol of the city, showing up at gatherings and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a remaining figure of Las Vegas glamour,” Chung says.
The Appeal of Illusion
Hardy says the transformative effect of a showgirl is part of the appeal. This is a notion Swift alludes to in a new docuseries that documents the behind-the-scenes action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting practice sessions, workouts and numerous concerts across 21 countries, each lasting 3.5 hours.
The performer describes her own stage routines as “comparable to completing an endurance race in high heels every night”. Her headpiece was 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the steps to the stage from the dressing rooms three floors below in the underground. I had to head up ahead of time for my entrance so I could catch my breath before I made my entrance. One is perspiring the whole time but maintaining this fantasy that it’s effortless and gorgeous and ethereal.”
Perhaps this is where the true allure of the showgirl really lies. In the complexity of 2025 there is a craving for a break from reality. Who better to turn to than these performers, who have always embodied fantasy, idealism and a realm where no one falters.
