Following a 31-year stint on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the dancers from the revue Jubilee! gave one last synchronised kick in 2016. The production, famous for its elaborate costumes created by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to falling audience numbers and unimpressed reviewers who labeled it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Today, nearly ten years later, the showgirl persona, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is back.
A Master of Sparkle
Known as the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made theatrical stage sparkle his defining aesthetic, outfitting everyone from Hollywood icons to pop royalty. In a recent auction, a “naked” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, well over its estimated price, while a shimmering tasseled bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more attractive for the new generation of stars who is seeking something other than what they grew up with”, he told a publication. “Contemporary performers are embracing a theatrical, more spectacular, breathtaking, grand statement.”
A Pop Culture Revival
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the heart of popular culture in 2025 thanks to Taylor Swift. In the past few months, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The crystal-covered bra and thong, plumed armbands and sparkly headpiece were ideal for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift is part of a trend. This year, glamorous nods have been incorporated by pop stars including Miley Cyrus as they zoomed across arena stages in sequins, revealing designs and feathers, spotlighted against theatrical sets. A top stylist her creative director mentioned in an interview with Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the 50s, her performers fluttered giant ostrich feather fans.
Pulling from History
Lipa, Carpenter and other hitmakers also reference classic entertainment forms, including classic theater and dance line references. The final look are vastly different from the 1990s era pop style of short shirts and utilitarian trousers, and street-style dance moves that came before them.
But not everyone are on board with this showgirl renaissance. Nancy Hardy, a former Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the 2000s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “used as an broad label including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently modern pop stars.”
A Highly Sought-After Retro Style
For millennial and young adult stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become incredibly sought-after. In 2024, a famous actress gave a nod to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the actor wore a semi-sheer beaded dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, Miley Cyrus paid an private amount to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn previously to perform at the Grammys. In September, Sabrina Carpenter wore a collection of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among fashion collectors.
“This style bring about nostalgia for a bygone era of glitz,” says Su Kim Chung, head of special collections at the a Las Vegas university, who studies the history of showgirls. “Now it is seen as a sort of ‘toned-down’ appeal because it has been modified. It has got all the elegance, the rhinestones and the sparkle but without the exposure.”
More Than Simply Fashion: An Symbol of Vegas
The expert says the showgirl image are central to the iconography of Sin City. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was flanked by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas no longer has any traditional showgirl productions, Jung says they are still employed as an symbol of the city, appearing at conventions and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a lasting icon of Vegas glamour,” the expert says.
The Appeal of Transformation
Hardy says the magical transformation of a showgirl is part of the appeal. This is a notion the singer hints at in a latest docuseries that shows the off-camera action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting rehearsals, workouts and countless performances across multiple nations, each going on for 3.5 hours.
Hardy describes her own showgirl performances as “like completing an endurance race in stilettos every night”. Her feathered headdress 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 basement. I had to start early for my entrance so I could rest before I performed. One is perspiring the whole time but creating this fantasy that it’s simple and gorgeous and magical.”
Maybe this is where the fascination of the showgirl really is found. In the complexity of 2025 there is a desire for escapism. Is there anyone better to look to than these performers, who have always embodied dreams, flawlessness and a world where nobody falters.
