After a three-decade stint on the Las Vegas strip, the dancers from the spectacle Jubilee! took a final synchronised kick in 2016. The production, famous for its elaborate costumes created by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to declining audience numbers and critical commentators who called it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Currently, nearly ten years later, the showgirl persona, or at least the showgirl style, is experiencing a revival.
The Sultan of Sparkle
Referred to as the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glitz his signature style, clothing everyone from screen legends to pop royalty. Earlier this month, a “naked” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, well over its projected value, while a metallic fringed bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more attractive for the new generation of stars who is looking for something other than what they were accustomed to”, he told a newspaper. “Contemporary performers are pushing toward a theatrical, more spectacular, attention-grabbing, memorable statement.”
The Musical Resurgence
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the centre of mainstream fashion in 2025 largely due to a global pop icon. In the past few months, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and glittering headpiece were tailor-made for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift isn't alone. This year, showgirl inspirations have been adopted by music artists including Sabrina Carpenter as they zoomed across concert platforms in sparkles, revealing designs and feathers, spotlighted against camp sets. Lipa’s stylist her creative director explained to a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the 1950s, her performers wafted giant plumed accessories.
Drawing from Tradition
Lipa, Carpenter and other chart toppers also take inspiration from historical performances, including burlesque and dance line references. The outcome are vastly different from the 90s pop style of revealing tops and utilitarian trousers, and urban dance moves that were popular earlier.
But not everyone are on board with this showgirl revival. An ex-showgirl, a ex- Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the 00s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word term is being “employed as an umbrella term encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently today's icons.”
A Coveted Classic Look
For younger and millennial stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a style icon honored to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the star wore a see-through beaded dress created by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, another pop star paid an private amount 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 hit among vintage enthusiasts.
“Showgirls evoke nostalgia for a past glamour,” says Su Kim Chung, head of special collections at the University of Nevada, who studies the history of showgirls. “Currently it is seen as a sort of ‘safe’ sexy because it has been updated. It has got all the elegance, the sparkles and the shine but without the bare skin.”
More Than Simply Fashion: An Symbol of Las Vegas
Chung says this figure are integral to the identity of Vegas. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was accompanied by two showgirls. While Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-based productions, the historian says they are still employed as an symbol of the city, showing up at gatherings and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a lasting figure of Las Vegas glitz and glamour,” she says.
An Allure of Escape
Nancy Hardy says the magical transformation of a showgirl persona is part of the allure. This is a notion Swift hints at in a latest docuseries that documents the off-camera action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included intense practice sessions, gym sessions and numerous concerts across 21 countries, each lasting 3.5 hours.
Hardy recalls her own nights in the spotlight as “comparable to extreme physical exertion in heels every night”. Her headpiece was 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the stairs to the platform from the green rooms three floors below in the underground. I had to start early for my moment so I could rest before I made my entrance. One is perspiring the whole time but crafting this illusion that it’s easy and beautiful and dreamlike.”
It could be this is where the appeal of the showgirl fantasy really resides. In the busyness of 2025 there is a desire for a break from reality. Who better to look to than such icons, who have always personified dreams, flawlessness and a realm where nobody makes a mistake.
