Following a 31-year tenure on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the showgirls from the spectacle Jubilee! took a final choreographed kick in 2016. The extravaganza, renowned for its intricate costumes created by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to falling audience numbers and unimpressed critics who labeled it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Now, almost a decade later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl style, is experiencing a revival.
The King of Glitz
Known as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glamour his signature style, dressing everyone from Hollywood icons to Madonna. Earlier this month, a “naked” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, well over its initial estimate, while a metallic fringed bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more enticing for the new generation of stars who is desiring something other than what they knew from childhood”, he explained to a media outlet. “New stars are embracing a theatrical, more spectacular, breathtaking, memorable statement.”
A Musical Revival
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the centre of mainstream fashion in 2025 thanks to a global pop icon. Earlier this year, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, feathered armbands and shimmering headpiece were tailor-made for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer isn't alone. This year, showgirl references have been embraced by music artists including Dua Lipa as they zoomed across arena stages in glitter, strategic openings and ostrich feathers, spotlighted against camp sets. A top stylist Lorenzo Posocco told Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the 1950s, the backup dancers wafted giant feathered fans.
Pulling from Tradition
These artists and other chart toppers also draw on 19th-century entertainment forms, including classic theater and dance line references. The final look are vastly different from the late-century teen pop of short shirts and utilitarian trousers, and street-style dance moves that were popular earlier.
But not everyone are enthusiastic with this glamour resurgence. An ex-showgirl, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the 00s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word term is being “treated as an broad label including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even Taylor Swift.”
The Highly Sought-After Vintage Style
For younger and modern stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become incredibly sought-after. In 2024, Zendaya 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 similar to one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, another pop star paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn previously to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a collection of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among fashion collectors.
“The showgirl aesthetic evoke nostalgia for a bygone era of glitz,” says an archivist, a curator at the an academic institution, who studies the story of showgirls. “Today it is considered a sort of ‘acceptable’ sexy because it has been updated. It has got all the glamour, the rhinestones and the glitter but without the exposure.”
More Than Simply Style: An Icon of the City
She says this figure are central to the iconography of Sin City. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was flanked by two showgirls. While Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-based productions, the historian says they are still featured as an symbol of the city, appearing at gatherings and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a remaining figure of Vegas glitz and glamour,” she says.
An Appeal of Escape
Nancy Hardy says the transformative effect of a showgirl is part of the appeal. This idea Taylor Swift alludes to in a latest documentary series that shows the backstage action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting preparations, gym sessions and numerous shows across dozens of cities, each going on for 3.5 hours.
She recalls her own nights in the spotlight as “similar to completing an endurance race in heels every night”. Her feathered headdress tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the steps to the performance area from the dressing rooms three floors below in the lower level. I had to leave early for my moment so I could recover before I performed. You are working hard the whole time but crafting this illusion that it’s effortless and gorgeous and magical.”
It could be this is where the fascination of the showgirl really resides. In the complexity of 2025 there is a desire for escapism. Is there anyone better to turn to than such icons, who have always represented dreams, flawlessness and a world where nobody misses a mark.
