Following a long-running tenure on the Las Vegas strip, the dancers from the production Jubilee! took a final perfectly timed kick in 2016. The show, known for its ornate costumes designed by style icon Bob Mackie, ended its run due to dwindling audience numbers and unimpressed critics who labeled it a spectacle “trapped in time”.
Currently, roughly eight years later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl style, is experiencing a revival.
The Sultan of Sparkle
Known as the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made over-the-top showgirl glamour his trademark look, outfitting everyone from screen legends to Madonna. In a recent auction, a “naked” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, well over its estimated price, while a shimmering tasseled bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie crafted 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 knew from childhood”, he told a newspaper. “Contemporary performers are striving for a theatrical, more dramatic, breathtaking, entrance-making statement.”
The Pop Culture Comeback
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the epicenter of popular culture in 2025 largely due to Taylor Swift. In the past few months, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The bedazzled bra and thong, plumed armbands and shimmering headpiece were perfect for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer is part of a trend. This year, showgirl references have been embraced by pop stars including Sabrina Carpenter as they zoomed across arena stages in glitter, strategic openings and plumes, illuminated against camp sets. A top stylist her creative director told Vogue he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the 50s, her performers fluttered giant plumed accessories.
Drawing from History
Lipa, Carpenter and other chart toppers also reference classic performances, including vaudeville and ensemble references. The results are vastly different from the late-century Britney Spears era of revealing tops and cargo pants, and street-style dance moves that were popular earlier.
But some critics are on board with this showgirl revival. An ex-showgirl, a ex- Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the early 2000s says the trend is “confusing”. 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 apparently today's icons.”
The Coveted Vintage Look
For younger and young adult stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a style icon gave a nod to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actress wore a translucent embellished dress created by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, a singer paid an significant price to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn at an awards show to perform at the Grammys. In September, the singer wore a trio of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among collectors.
“The showgirl aesthetic bring about a sense of longing for a historical elegance,” says a historian, a curator at the an academic institution, who studies the legacy of showgirls. “Today it is considered a sort of ‘acceptable’ allure because it has been updated. It has got all the glamour, the crystals and the sparkle but without the nudity.”
A Than Just Fashion: An Icon of Vegas
She says showgirls are integral to the iconography of Vegas. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was accompanied by two showgirls. While Las Vegas does not host any showgirl-centric productions, Chung says they are still featured as an logo of the city, being present at corporate events and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a remaining icon of Vegas spectacle,” Chung says.
The Appeal of Illusion
Hardy says the complete change of a stage character is part of the appeal. This idea the singer alludes to in a recent behind-the-scenes film that shows the behind-the-scenes action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting practice sessions, training and numerous performances across dozens of cities, each lasting 3.5 hours.
She explains her own showgirl performances as “similar to running a marathon in heels every night”. Her headpiece tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the staircase to the performance area from the backstage area three floors below in the underground. I had to leave early for my entrance so I could recover before I made my entrance. You are sweating the whole time but maintaining this illusion that it’s simple and gorgeous and dreamlike.”
Perhaps this is where the appeal of the showgirl really lies. In the complexity of 2025 there is a longing for a break from reality. Who better to emulate than these performers, who have always embodied fantasy, flawlessness and a universe where nobody falters.
