After a 31-year run on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the dancers from the revue Jubilee! executed their last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The production, famous for its ornate costumes designed by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to dwindling audience numbers and critical commentators who labeled it a spectacle “trapped in time”.
Now, roughly eight years later, the showgirl persona, or at least the showgirl style, is experiencing a revival.
The Master of Sparkle
Referred to as the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made over-the-top stage sparkle his defining aesthetic, outfitting everyone from screen legends to Madonna. Earlier this month, a “barely-there” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, far exceeding its initial estimate, while a silver and gold beaded bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more appealing for the emerging artists who is looking for something other than what they were accustomed to”, he told a media outlet. “Today's artists are striving for a glamorous, more dramatic, show-stopping, memorable statement.”
The Mainstream Comeback
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the heart of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 thanks to Taylor Swift. In the past few months, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The bedazzled bra and thong, plumed armbands and glittering headpiece were perfect for a record called 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 sparkles, strategic openings and plumes, spotlighted against theatrical sets. A top stylist her creative director mentioned in an interview with a style publication he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the 1950s, Lipa’s dancers wafted giant ostrich feather fans.
Drawing from History
Modern stars and other successful musicians also draw on historical performances, including vaudeville and chorus line references. The outcome are poles apart from the late-century teen pop of crop tops and baggy pants, and urban dance moves that were popular earlier.
But certain observers are enthusiastic with this showgirl renaissance. An ex-showgirl, a former Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the 00s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “treated as an catch-all phrase covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even today's icons.”
The Highly Sought-After Classic Look
For millennial and modern stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become incredibly sought-after. In 2024, a famous actress honored to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actress wore a see-through beaded dress created 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 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 collectors.
“This style inspire nostalgia for a past glamour,” says Su Kim Chung, an expert at the an academic institution, who studies the legacy of showgirls. “Today it is seen as a sort of ‘toned-down’ sexy because it has been modified. It has got all the elegance, the crystals and the sparkle but without the bare skin.”
A Than Just Fashion: An Symbol of Vegas
The expert says this figure are key to the identity of Las Vegas. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was surrounded by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-centric productions, the historian says they are still used as an logo of the city, showing up at conventions and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a enduring symbol of Vegas spectacle,” Chung says.
An Appeal of Escape
Nancy Hardy says the transformative effect of a showgirl is part of the appeal. It’s something the singer references in a latest behind-the-scenes film that documents the off-camera action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling practice sessions, workouts and countless shows across 21 countries, each running for 3.5 hours.
The performer explains her own showgirl performances as “like extreme physical exertion in high heels every night”. Her headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the steps to the platform from the dressing rooms three floors below in the underground. I had to leave early for my cue so I could rest before I went on stage. One is perspiring the whole time but crafting this illusion that it’s simple and beautiful and magical.”
Maybe this is where the true allure of the showgirl really resides. In the complexity of 2025 there is a craving for a break from reality. What better figure to look to than these performers, who have always personified dreams, perfection and a world where no one misses a mark.
