🔗 Share this article

After a long-running run on the iconic Vegas strip, the showgirls from the production Jubilee! took a final synchronised kick in 2016. The production, known for its elaborate costumes created by style icon Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to falling audience numbers and unimpressed critics who labeled it a spectacle “trapped in time”.

Now, roughly eight years later, the showgirl, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is experiencing a revival.

A Master of Sequins

Known as the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glitz his signature style, outfitting everyone from screen legends to pop royalty. In a recent auction, a “barely-there” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, far exceeding its estimated price, while a metallic beaded bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.

“I think it looks more attractive for the younger performer who is desiring something other than what they knew from childhood”, he told a publication. “Contemporary performers are embracing a show-stopping, more dramatic, breathtaking, memorable statement.”

A Musical Resurgence

It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the heart of mainstream fashion in 2025 thanks to a chart-topping superstar. Earlier this year, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The bedazzled bra and thong, feathered armbands and shimmering headpiece were ideal for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.

She has company. This year, showgirl references have been adopted by music artists including Sabrina Carpenter as they zoomed across world tours in glitter, strategic openings and feathers, highlighted against theatrical sets. A top stylist Lorenzo Posocco explained to a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the 1950s, the backup dancers fluttered giant plumed accessories.

Pulling from History

Lipa, Carpenter and other successful musicians also reference historical entertainment forms, including vaudeville and ensemble references. The final look are poles apart from the 1990s era pop style of crop tops and cargo pants, and street-style dance moves that were popular earlier.

But certain observers are enthusiastic with this showgirl renaissance. An ex-showgirl, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the 2000s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “employed as an umbrella term including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly modern pop stars.”

The Coveted Vintage Style

For gen Z and modern stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a famous actress gave a nod to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the actress wore a see-through beaded dress made by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, Miley Cyrus paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn at an awards show to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a series of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a favorite among fashion collectors.

“Showgirls inspire fond memories for a past glamour,” says a historian, a curator at the an academic institution, who studies the story of showgirls. “Now it is considered a sort of ‘toned-down’ appeal because it has been adapted. It has got all the glamour, the rhinestones and the glitter but without the nudity.”

More Than Simply Style: An Icon of Las Vegas

She says the showgirl image are key to the identity of Las Vegas. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was flanked by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas does not host any traditional showgirl productions, the historian says they are still used as an emblem of the city, showing up at gatherings and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a enduring symbol of Vegas spectacle,” the expert says.

An Allure of Illusion

Nancy Hardy says the transformative effect of a showgirl is part of the attraction. This is a notion Swift hints at in a recent documentary series that captures the backstage action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling preparations, training and numerous performances across 21 countries, each lasting 3.5 hours.

The performer recalls her own showgirl performances as “comparable to completing an endurance race in heels every night”. Her headpiece weighed 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the staircase to the performance area from the dressing rooms three floors below in the underground. I had to head up ahead of time for my moment so I could catch my breath before I went on stage. You’re working hard the whole time but maintaining this illusion that it’s easy and gorgeous and ethereal.”

Perhaps this is where the appeal of the showgirl really resides. In the busyness of 2025 there is a craving for a break from reality. Who better to turn to than these performers, who have always personified fantasy, idealism and a world where nobody misses a mark.