Following a 31-year run on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the performers from the production Jubilee! executed their last choreographed kick in 2016. The show, famous for its elaborate costumes created by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, ended its run due to falling audience numbers and unimpressed commentators who labeled it a spectacle “trapped in time”.
Today, nearly ten years later, showgirls, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is making a comeback.
A Sultan of Sequins
Dubbed the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made dramatic stage sparkle his signature style, clothing everyone from Marilyn Monroe to pop royalty. Recently, a “see-through” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, well over its estimated price, while a shimmering fringed bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more enticing for the younger performer who is desiring something other than what they were accustomed to”, he told a media outlet. “Contemporary performers are embracing a show-stopping, more dramatic, show-stopping, grand statement.”
The Musical Comeback
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the epicenter of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 thanks to a chart-topping superstar. Earlier this year, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s original 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.
The singer has company. This year, glamorous nods have been embraced by music artists including Miley Cyrus as they whizzed across arena stages in sequins, revealing designs and feathers, illuminated against overstated sets. Lipa’s stylist Lorenzo Posocco mentioned in an interview with a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the 1950s, Lipa’s dancers waved giant ostrich feather fans.
Pulling from Tradition
These artists and other hitmakers also take inspiration from 19th-century performances, including burlesque and dance line references. The final look are vastly different from the late-century teen pop of crop tops and cargo pants, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that were popular earlier.
But not everyone are enthusiastic with this showgirl renaissance. An ex-showgirl, a ex- Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the early 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word term is being “used as an umbrella term including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly today's icons.”
A Coveted Vintage Style
For millennial and millennial stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a famous actress paid tribute to one of Mackie’s first major stars, 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. Later that year, Miley Cyrus paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn earlier in the year to perform at the Grammys. In September, the singer wore a collection of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among vintage enthusiasts.
“This style evoke a sense of longing for a past glamour,” says an archivist, an expert at the an academic institution, who documents the story of showgirls. “Currently it is viewed as a sort of ‘toned-down’ allure because it has been updated. It has got all the glamour, the sparkles and the sparkle but without the exposure.”
More Than Simply Fashion: An Icon of Las Vegas
She says the showgirl image are integral to the identity of Vegas. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was accompanied by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas does not host any showgirl-centric productions, Jung says they are still employed as an symbol of the city, appearing at corporate events and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a remaining symbol of Vegas glitz and glamour,” Chung says.
The Allure of Escape
Hardy says the magical transformation of a showgirl persona is part of the appeal. This idea Swift hints at in a latest behind-the-scenes film that captures the backstage action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling rehearsals, gym sessions and 149 shows across dozens of cities, each lasting 3.5 hours.
Hardy describes her own showgirl performances as “comparable to completing an endurance race in stilettos every night”. Her feathered headdress was 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the stairs to the platform from the backstage area three floors below in the basement. I had to leave early for my entrance so I could rest before I made my entrance. You’re perspiring the whole time but creating this illusion that it’s easy and gorgeous and dreamlike.”
Perhaps this is where the appeal of the showgirl really lies. In the chaos of 2025 there is a longing for escapism. What better figure to turn to than such icons, who have always embodied dreams, flawlessness and a universe where nobody makes a mistake.
