After a three-decade tenure on the Las Vegas strip, the performers from the production Jubilee! executed their last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The show, renowned for its elaborate costumes crafted by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to dwindling audience numbers and disappointed commentators who described it as a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Now, roughly eight years later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is back.
A King of Sparkle
Dubbed the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made theatrical showgirl glitz his trademark look, clothing everyone from Hollywood icons to music superstars. Earlier this month, a “barely-there” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, well over its initial estimate, while a silver and gold tasseled bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie crafted 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 knew from childhood”, he told a newspaper. “Today's artists are embracing a show-stopping, more dramatic, show-stopping, grand statement.”
The Mainstream Resurgence
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the heart of popular culture in 2025 thanks to a chart-topping superstar. Earlier this year, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, feathered armbands and shimmering headpiece were tailor-made for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
She has company. This year, showgirl inspirations have been adopted by singers including Dua Lipa as they zoomed across concert platforms in glitter, revealing designs and plumes, highlighted against overstated sets. Lipa’s stylist Lorenzo Posocco told a style publication he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the 1950s, the backup dancers fluttered giant plumed accessories.
Pulling from Tradition
Lipa, Carpenter and other successful musicians also take inspiration from classic entertainment forms, including classic theater and chorus line references. The outcome are poles apart from the 90s pop style of crop tops and baggy pants, and urban dance moves that were popular earlier.
But certain observers are on board with this glamour resurgence. Nancy Hardy, a former Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the 00s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word term is being “employed as an catch-all phrase including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently today's icons.”
The Coveted Vintage Style
For gen Z and modern stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a famous actress paid tribute to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actor wore a see-through embellished dress created by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, another pop star paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn previously to perform at the Grammys. In September, Sabrina Carpenter wore a trio of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among vintage enthusiasts.
“Showgirls evoke a sense of longing for a historical elegance,” says Su Kim Chung, head of special collections at the University of Nevada, who studies the story of showgirls. “Today it is seen as a sort of ‘acceptable’ allure because it has been adapted. It has got all the elegance, the rhinestones and the sparkle but without the nudity.”
A Than Just Fashion: An Symbol of Vegas
Chung says the showgirl image are integral to the imagery of Sin City. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was accompanied by two showgirls. While Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-based productions, the historian says they are still employed as an logo of the city, showing up at gatherings and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a remaining symbol of Las Vegas spectacle,” she says.
An Allure of Transformation
Hardy says the transformative effect of a stage character is part of the appeal. It’s something Swift alludes to in a recent documentary series that shows the off-camera action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling preparations, workouts and 149 concerts across 21 countries, each lasting 3.5 hours.
The performer recalls her own stage routines as “comparable to running a marathon in heels every night”. Her headdress tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the steps to the platform from the green rooms three floors below in the underground. I had to head up ahead of time for my entrance so I could catch my breath before I went on stage. You’re working hard the whole time but crafting this image that it’s effortless and beautiful and ethereal.”
It could be this is where the true allure of the showgirl fantasy really lies. In the chaos of 2025 there is a longing for a break from reality. Who better to emulate than these performers, who have always personified dreams, perfection and a realm where no one misses a mark.