Following a three-decade run on the Las Vegas strip, the showgirls from the production Jubilee! executed their last choreographed kick in 2016. The show, known for its elaborate costumes crafted by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, ended its run due to dwindling audience numbers and unimpressed critics who labeled it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Now, nearly ten years later, the showgirl persona, or at least the showgirl style, is back.
The Sultan of Glitz
Referred to as the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made dramatic stage sparkle his trademark look, dressing everyone from Marilyn Monroe to Madonna. In a recent auction, a “barely-there” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, seven times its projected value, while a metallic fringed bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more enticing for the younger performer who is looking for something other than what they grew up with”, he explained to a publication. “New stars are striving for a theatrical, more spectacular, attention-grabbing, grand statement.”
A Pop Culture Comeback
It’s a look that glided all the way to the centre of mainstream fashion in 2025 thanks to Taylor Swift. Recently, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and shimmering 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 Miley Cyrus as they whizzed across arena stages in glitter, strategic openings and ostrich feathers, spotlighted against theatrical sets. Lipa’s stylist Lorenzo Posocco explained to Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the mid-century, Lipa’s dancers fluttered giant feathered fans.
Drawing from the Past
These artists and other hitmakers also reference 19th-century entertainment forms, including burlesque and dance line references. The results are poles apart from the late-century teen pop of crop tops and utilitarian trousers, and urban dance moves that came before them.
But not everyone are convinced with this showgirl renaissance. An ex-showgirl, a ex- Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “employed as an broad label including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently today's icons.”
The Highly Sought-After Retro Style
For millennial and millennial stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a style icon gave a nod to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the star wore a semi-sheer beaded dress made by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, Miley Cyrus paid an private amount to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn earlier in the year to perform at the Grammys. In September, the singer wore a collection of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among collectors.
“Showgirls bring about nostalgia for a past glamour,” says a historian, a curator at the a Las Vegas university, who documents the history of showgirls. “Today it is viewed as a sort of ‘safe’ allure because it has been updated. It has got all the sophistication, the sparkles and the glitter but without the exposure.”
More Than Just Style: An Symbol of Las Vegas
Chung says the showgirl image are central to the identity of Sin City. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was accompanied by two showgirls. While Las Vegas currently lacks any traditional showgirl productions, the historian says they are still featured as an emblem of the city, appearing at corporate events and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a enduring symbol of Vegas spectacle,” she says.
An Allure of Escape
Nancy Hardy says the transformative effect of a showgirl is part of the allure. This idea the singer references in a latest behind-the-scenes film that captures the off-camera action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting practice sessions, gym sessions and 149 performances across dozens of cities, each lasting 3.5 hours.
Hardy recalls her own stage routines as “like running a marathon in stilettos every night”. Her headpiece tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the stairs to the performance area from the dressing rooms three floors below in the basement. I had to leave early for my moment so I could rest before I made my entrance. You are working hard the whole time but creating this image that it’s simple and stunning and dreamlike.”
Maybe this is where the fascination of the showgirl fantasy really is found. In the busyness of 2025 there is a craving for escapism. What better figure to turn to than such icons, who have always personified make-believe, perfection and a realm where no one falters.
