After a three-decade stint on the Las Vegas strip, the dancers from the revue Jubilee! took a final synchronised kick in 2016. The extravaganza, known for its ornate costumes created by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, ended its run due to falling audience numbers and unimpressed critics who labeled it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Today, roughly eight years later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl style, is experiencing a revival.
A King of Sequins
Dubbed the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made dramatic 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 commanded $57,600, far exceeding its projected value, while a silver and gold beaded bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more attractive for the emerging artists who is looking for something other than what they grew up with”, he stated in an interview with a media outlet. “New stars are striving for a show-stopping, more spectacular, show-stopping, memorable statement.”
The Mainstream Resurgence
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the centre of mainstream fashion in 2025 thanks to a chart-topping superstar. Recently, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The crystal-covered bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and shimmering headpiece were tailor-made for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift has company. This year, showgirl references have been adopted by pop stars including Miley Cyrus as they zoomed across arena stages in sequins, strategic openings and ostrich feathers, illuminated against overstated sets. Lipa’s stylist a fashion expert told a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the mid-century, her performers waved giant plumed accessories.
Drawing from the Past
Lipa, Carpenter and other chart toppers also draw on 19th-century entertainment forms, including vaudeville and ensemble references. The outcome are vastly different from the 90s Britney Spears era of short shirts and baggy pants, and urban dance moves that were popular earlier.
But some critics are convinced with this glamour resurgence. An ex-showgirl, a ex- Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the 2000s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “employed as an broad label covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly today's icons.”
The Coveted Classic Style
For gen Z and young adult stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a style icon honored to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the actor wore a translucent beaded dress created by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, another pop star paid an private amount to buy the Mackie fringed 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 vintage enthusiasts.
“Showgirls inspire fond memories for a historical elegance,” says a historian, an expert at the a Las Vegas university, who studies the legacy of showgirls. “Currently it is seen as a sort of ‘toned-down’ allure because it has been modified. It has got all the elegance, the rhinestones and the glitter but without the bare skin.”
A Than Just Fashion: An Icon of the City
She says the showgirl image are central to the iconography of Las Vegas. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was accompanied by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas currently lacks any traditional showgirl productions, Jung says they are still used as an symbol of the city, showing up at gatherings and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a remaining figure of Vegas glamour,” she says.
The Appeal of Illusion
The former showgirl says the transformative effect of a showgirl persona is part of the appeal. It’s something Swift references in a latest behind-the-scenes film that documents the backstage action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling preparations, gym sessions and 149 concerts across multiple nations, each lasting 3.5 hours.
Hardy explains her own showgirl performances as “comparable to extreme physical exertion in stilettos every night”. Her headdress was 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the stairs to the stage from the dressing rooms three floors below in the basement. I had to head up ahead of time for my entrance so I could rest before I performed. You are sweating the whole time but crafting this illusion that it’s effortless and beautiful and ethereal.”
It could be this is where the appeal of the showgirl really resides. In the complexity of 2025 there is a desire for escapism. Is there anyone better to emulate than showgirls, who have always personified dreams, perfection and a world where nobody makes a mistake.
