After a 31-year run on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the dancers from the spectacle Jubilee! executed their last choreographed kick in 2016. The production, famous for its elaborate costumes created by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, ended its run due to dwindling audience numbers and critical reviewers who called it a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Now, almost a decade later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is making a comeback.
A Sultan of Glitz
Referred to as the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glitz his signature style, dressing everyone from Hollywood icons to music superstars. In a recent auction, a “naked” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, seven times its initial estimate, while a shimmering tasseled bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more enticing for the new generation of stars who is looking for something other than what they were accustomed to”, he explained to a media outlet. “New stars are striving for a show-stopping, more theatrical, attention-grabbing, grand statement.”
A Pop Culture Comeback
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the centre of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 propelled by Taylor Swift. Earlier this year, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The bedazzled bra and thong, feathered armbands and glittering headpiece were perfect for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer 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 sparkles, strategic openings and feathers, spotlighted against overstated sets. Her fashion curator her creative director mentioned in an interview with Vogue he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the mid-century, Lipa’s dancers fluttered giant feathered fans.
Drawing from Tradition
Lipa, Carpenter and other hitmakers also draw on classic entertainment forms, including classic theater and ensemble references. The results are poles apart from the 1990s era pop style of crop tops and utilitarian trousers, and street-style dance moves that were popular earlier.
But not everyone are on board with this showgirl revival. Nancy Hardy, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the early 2000s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “treated as an broad label including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently modern pop stars.”
The Coveted Retro Style
For millennial and millennial stars, Mackie’s vintage 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 translucent beaded dress created by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, Miley Cyrus paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn previously to perform at the Grammys. In September, the singer wore a trio of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a favorite among vintage enthusiasts.
“Showgirls evoke nostalgia for a past glamour,” says an archivist, a curator at the University of Nevada, who documents the legacy of showgirls. “Now it is viewed as a sort of ‘toned-down’ appeal because it has been adapted. It has got all the glamour, the crystals and the shine but without the exposure.”
A Than Simply Fashion: An Icon of the City
Chung says the showgirl image are central to the imagery of Sin City. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was surrounded by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-based productions, Jung says they are still used as an emblem of the city, being present at corporate events and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a lasting icon of Vegas glitz and glamour,” the expert says.
The Appeal of Escape
Nancy Hardy says the complete change of a showgirl is part of the allure. This is a notion Taylor Swift hints at in a latest behind-the-scenes film that documents the backstage action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting practice sessions, gym sessions and countless shows across dozens of cities, each running for 3.5 hours.
The performer explains her own showgirl performances as “similar to running a marathon in high heels every night”. Her feathered headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the steps to the platform from the backstage area three floors below in the basement. I had to leave early for my entrance so I could rest before I went on stage. You are perspiring the whole time but maintaining this image that it’s simple and beautiful and magical.”
Perhaps this is where the true allure of the showgirl really is found. In the chaos of 2025 there is a desire for fantasy. Is there anyone better to turn to than these performers, who have always represented make-believe, idealism and a universe where nobody makes a mistake.
