After a long-running stint on the Las Vegas strip, the dancers from the spectacle Jubilee! took a final synchronised kick in 2016. The show, famous for its elaborate costumes crafted by style icon Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to falling audience numbers and unimpressed commentators who called it a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Currently, almost a decade later, the showgirl, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is making a comeback.
A Sultan of Glitz
Known as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made over-the-top showgirl glamour his signature style, outfitting everyone from Marilyn Monroe to Madonna. Earlier this month, a “naked” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, well over its initial estimate, while a metallic beaded bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more enticing for the emerging artists who is desiring something other than what they grew up with”, he told a newspaper. “Contemporary performers are striving for a glamorous, more dramatic, breathtaking, memorable statement.”
The Mainstream Revival
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the centre of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 propelled by Taylor Swift. Recently, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The crystal-covered bra and thong, plumed armbands and sparkly headpiece were perfect for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer has company. This year, glamorous nods have been incorporated by singers including Dua Lipa as they zoomed across world tours in glitter, revealing designs and plumes, illuminated against theatrical sets. Her fashion curator a fashion expert explained to a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the 50s, her performers wafted giant plumed accessories.
Pulling from Tradition
These artists and other successful musicians also draw on historical performances, including burlesque and dance line references. The final look are poles apart from the 90s pop style of revealing tops and baggy pants, and urban dance moves that preceded this trend.
But some critics are on board with this glamour resurgence. A former performer, a ex- Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the early 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word term is being “treated as an catch-all phrase encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even modern pop stars.”
The Coveted Classic Look
For gen Z and modern stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a famous actress paid tribute to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actress wore a semi-sheer sequined dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, another pop star paid an significant price to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn earlier in the year to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a collection of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among fashion collectors.
“Showgirls evoke nostalgia for a past glamour,” says an archivist, an expert at the a Las Vegas university, who studies the story of showgirls. “Today it is seen as a sort of ‘toned-down’ allure because it has been updated. It has got all the sophistication, the sparkles and the shine but without the nudity.”
A Than Just Style: An Symbol of Vegas
The expert says the showgirl image are integral to the iconography of Sin City. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was flanked by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-centric productions, the historian says they are still used as an symbol of the city, showing up at gatherings and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a remaining icon of Las Vegas glitz and glamour,” Chung says.
An Appeal of Illusion
The former showgirl says the magical transformation of a stage character is part of the appeal. It’s something Swift hints at in a new docuseries that captures the off-camera action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting preparations, training and 149 concerts across dozens of cities, each going on for 3.5 hours.
She recalls her own showgirl performances as “like completing an endurance race in heels every night”. Her feathered headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the steps to the platform from the backstage area three floors below in the underground. I had to head up ahead of time for my moment so I could rest before I performed. You’re perspiring the whole time but crafting this illusion that it’s effortless and beautiful and dreamlike.”
Perhaps this is where the fascination of the showgirl really lies. In the complexity of 2025 there is a craving for a break from reality. What better figure to emulate than such icons, who have always personified make-believe, perfection and a realm where no one falters.
