Following a three-decade tenure on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the dancers from the revue Jubilee! took a final perfectly timed kick in 2016. The extravaganza, renowned for its intricate costumes created by style icon Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to dwindling audience numbers and disappointed commentators who labeled it a spectacle “trapped in time”.
Currently, almost a decade later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is making a comeback.
A King of Sparkle
Known as the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made theatrical showgirl glitz his trademark look, outfitting everyone from screen legends to Madonna. Recently, a “naked” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, seven times its estimated price, while a shimmering beaded bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 show 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 media outlet. “Today's artists are embracing a show-stopping, more theatrical, show-stopping, entrance-making statement.”
A Pop Culture Revival
It’s a look that glided all the way to the epicenter of mainstream fashion in 2025 largely due to Taylor Swift. Earlier this year, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The bedazzled bra and thong, feathered armbands and sparkly headpiece were ideal for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift is part of a trend. This year, showgirl inspirations have been incorporated by music artists including Sabrina Carpenter as they whizzed across arena stages in sparkles, strategic openings and plumes, illuminated against overstated sets. Lipa’s stylist Lorenzo Posocco explained to a style publication he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the 50s, Lipa’s dancers wafted giant ostrich feather fans.
Drawing from Tradition
Modern stars and other successful musicians also reference 19th-century performances, including vaudeville and ensemble references. The outcome are vastly different from the 1990s era Britney Spears era of revealing tops and baggy pants, and urban dance moves that preceded this trend.
But certain observers are enthusiastic with this glamour resurgence. An ex-showgirl, a former Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the 2000s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “employed as an catch-all phrase encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently modern pop stars.”
A Highly Sought-After Classic Style
For gen Z and millennial stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a style icon paid tribute to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actor wore a translucent embellished dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, a singer paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn earlier in the year to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a trio 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 an archivist, head of special collections at the a Las Vegas university, who researches the history of showgirls. “Currently it is viewed as a sort of ‘safe’ allure because it has been modified. It has got all the elegance, the rhinestones and the sparkle but without the nudity.”
A Than Simply Fashion: An Icon of the City
The expert says this figure are integral to the identity of Las Vegas. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was accompanied by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-centric productions, Chung says they are still used as an emblem of the city, appearing at corporate events and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a lasting icon of Vegas spectacle,” she says.
The Appeal of Escape
Nancy Hardy says the transformative effect of a showgirl persona is part of the allure. It’s something Taylor Swift alludes to in a new docuseries that documents the behind-the-scenes action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling practice sessions, training and numerous concerts across dozens of cities, each lasting 3.5 hours.
Hardy recalls her own nights in the spotlight as “like completing an endurance race in heels every night”. Her feathered headdress was 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the staircase to the stage from the green rooms three floors below in the basement. I had to head up ahead of time for my cue so I could catch my breath before I performed. One is perspiring the whole time but creating this image that it’s simple and beautiful and ethereal.”
It could be this is where the true allure of the showgirl really is found. In the busyness of 2025 there is a desire for fantasy. What better figure to emulate than these performers, who have always represented make-believe, idealism and a realm where nobody falters.
