Following a long-running run on the iconic Vegas strip, the performers from the revue Jubilee! gave one last synchronised kick in 2016. The show, renowned for its intricate costumes created by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, came to an end due to dwindling audience numbers and unimpressed reviewers who called it a spectacle “trapped in time”.
Now, roughly eight years later, the showgirl, or at least the showgirl style, is making a comeback.
A King of Sequins
Referred to as the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made over-the-top showgirl glitz his defining aesthetic, dressing everyone from Marilyn Monroe to Madonna. Recently, a “barely-there” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, far exceeding its estimated price, while a shimmering tasseled bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more attractive for the younger performer who is desiring something other than what they grew up with”, he stated in an interview with a newspaper. “Today's artists are pushing toward a glamorous, more spectacular, breathtaking, entrance-making statement.”
The Pop Culture Revival
It’s a look that glided all the way to the centre of popular culture in 2025 largely due to a chart-topping superstar. In the past few months, the music phenomenon 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 tailor-made for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift has company. This year, showgirl references have been embraced by pop stars including Sabrina Carpenter as they whizzed across world tours in sparkles, revealing designs and plumes, illuminated against camp sets. Her fashion curator Lorenzo Posocco mentioned in an interview with a style publication he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the mid-century, her performers wafted giant feathered fans.
Drawing from Tradition
These artists and other successful musicians also reference 19th-century entertainment forms, including burlesque and dance line references. The results are poles apart from the 1990s era teen pop of crop tops and utilitarian trousers, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that were popular earlier.
But not everyone are on board with this showgirl renaissance. A former performer, a former Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the 2000s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “employed as an umbrella term encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even today's icons.”
A Coveted Vintage Look
For millennial and millennial stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become incredibly sought-after. In 2024, a style icon paid tribute to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the actor wore a translucent embellished dress created by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, a singer paid an private amount to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn at an awards show to perform at the Grammys. In September, Sabrina Carpenter wore a series of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among fashion collectors.
“Showgirls bring about a sense of longing for a bygone era of glitz,” says Su Kim Chung, a curator at the a Las Vegas university, who documents the story of showgirls. “Currently it is viewed as a sort of ‘toned-down’ allure because it has been adapted. It has got all the glamour, the rhinestones and the shine but without the exposure.”
A Than Simply Fashion: An Icon of Las Vegas
Chung says showgirls are central to the imagery of Vegas. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was surrounded by two showgirls. While Las Vegas does not host 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 symbol of Vegas glamour,” Chung says.
An Appeal of Escape
Nancy Hardy says the magical transformation of a showgirl persona is part of the allure. It’s something Swift hints at in a recent docuseries that captures the backstage action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included intense rehearsals, gym sessions and 149 shows across multiple nations, each running for 3.5 hours.
The performer describes her own nights in the spotlight as “similar to running a marathon in heels every night”. Her feathered headdress tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the staircase to the stage from the dressing rooms three floors below in the lower level. I had to start early for my entrance so I could recover before I went on stage. You’re perspiring the whole time but crafting this image that it’s simple and gorgeous and dreamlike.”
Maybe this is where the true allure of the showgirl really resides. In the chaos of 2025 there is a craving for a break from reality. Who better to look to than these performers, who have always embodied fantasy, perfection and a world where nobody misses a mark.
