After a long-running run on the iconic Vegas strip, the performers from the revue Jubilee! executed their last choreographed kick in 2016. The production, famous for its elaborate costumes created by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to falling audience numbers and unimpressed reviewers who called it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Now, roughly eight years later, the showgirl persona, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is back.
The Master of Sparkle
Dubbed the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glamour his signature style, dressing everyone from Hollywood icons to music superstars. In a recent auction, a “see-through” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, far exceeding its projected value, while a shimmering beaded bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more enticing for the emerging artists who is desiring something other than what they were accustomed to”, he stated in an interview with a publication. “Today's artists are embracing a show-stopping, more spectacular, attention-grabbing, memorable statement.”
A Musical Resurgence
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the centre of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 largely due to Taylor Swift. Recently, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The crystal-covered bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and shimmering headpiece were ideal for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer has company. This year, glamorous nods have been embraced by pop stars including Dua Lipa as they whizzed across world tours in sequins, cut-outs and ostrich feathers, illuminated against camp sets. Lipa’s stylist a fashion expert told a style publication he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the mid-century, her performers waved giant feathered fans.
Pulling from Tradition
Lipa, Carpenter and other successful musicians also draw on 19th-century entertainment forms, including burlesque and ensemble references. The results are worlds away from the 90s Britney Spears era of short shirts and baggy pants, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that came before them.
But some critics are convinced with this showgirl revival. A former performer, a former Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the 2000s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “treated as an broad label covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly today's icons.”
A Coveted Classic Look
For gen Z and millennial stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, Zendaya paid tribute to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the actress wore a translucent beaded dress created by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, a singer paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie tasseled 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 hit among fashion collectors.
“Showgirls evoke fond memories for a historical elegance,” says an archivist, a curator at the a Las Vegas university, who documents the history of showgirls. “Today it is viewed as a sort of ‘toned-down’ appeal because it has been updated. It has got all the elegance, the rhinestones and the glitter but without the exposure.”
More Than Simply Style: An Symbol of Las Vegas
She says showgirls are central to the identity of Sin City. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was surrounded by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas does not host any showgirl-based productions, Chung says they are still employed as an symbol of the city, appearing at gatherings and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a enduring symbol of Vegas glamour,” the expert says.
An Appeal of Illusion
Nancy Hardy says the complete change of a stage character is part of the appeal. This is a notion Swift references in a recent docuseries that documents the behind-the-scenes action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting practice sessions, training and numerous performances across 21 countries, each lasting 3.5 hours.
Hardy explains her own stage routines as “similar to running a marathon in stilettos every night”. Her headpiece was 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the stairs to the performance area from the dressing rooms three floors below in the lower level. I had to leave early for my entrance so I could rest before I performed. You are perspiring the whole time but maintaining this illusion that it’s effortless and beautiful and ethereal.”
It could be this is where the appeal of the showgirl really resides. In the complexity of 2025 there is a desire for escapism. Who better to turn to than these performers, who have always embodied fantasy, perfection and a world where no one falters.
