After a 31-year run on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the showgirls from the revue Jubilee! executed their last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The extravaganza, famous for its intricate costumes created by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, ended its run due to declining audience numbers and unimpressed commentators who called it a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Today, almost a decade later, the showgirl, or at least the showgirl style, is back.
The King of Sequins
Referred to as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made theatrical showgirl glamour his trademark look, outfitting everyone from Hollywood icons to Madonna. Earlier this month, a “barely-there” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, far exceeding its initial estimate, while a metallic beaded bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more enticing for the emerging artists who is seeking something other than what they knew from childhood”, he told a publication. “Contemporary performers are pushing toward a theatrical, more dramatic, show-stopping, entrance-making statement.”
A Mainstream 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 new musical project. The bedazzled bra and thong, feathered armbands and shimmering headpiece were ideal for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift has company. This year, showgirl inspirations have been embraced by music artists including Miley Cyrus as they whizzed across concert platforms in glitter, cut-outs and feathers, highlighted against camp sets. A top stylist her creative director mentioned in an interview with a style publication he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the 1950s, her performers waved giant feathered fans.
Drawing from History
Modern stars and other successful musicians also draw on historical entertainment forms, including vaudeville and dance line references. The results are poles apart from the 1990s era Britney Spears era of crop tops and baggy pants, and street-style dance moves that preceded this trend.
But some critics are enthusiastic with this glamour resurgence. An ex-showgirl, a ex- Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the 2000s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “employed as an umbrella term covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently today's icons.”
A Highly Sought-After Retro Look
For millennial and millennial stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a famous actress honored to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the actress wore a semi-sheer sequined dress made by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, another pop star paid an private amount 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 vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a favorite among fashion collectors.
“Showgirls evoke a sense of longing for a past glamour,” says a historian, an expert at the University of Nevada, who documents the legacy of showgirls. “Now it is considered a sort of ‘safe’ sexy because it has been modified. It has got all the sophistication, the crystals and the sparkle but without the exposure.”
A Than Just Style: An Icon of the City
She says this figure are key to the iconography of Sin City. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was accompanied by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas does not host any showgirl-centric productions, the historian says they are still used as an symbol of the city, being present at conventions and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a remaining symbol of Vegas glamour,” Chung says.
The Appeal of Illusion
Nancy Hardy says the magical transformation of a showgirl persona is part of the allure. This idea Taylor Swift alludes to in a latest documentary series that captures the off-camera action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling practice sessions, training and numerous concerts across 21 countries, each going on for 3.5 hours.
The performer describes her own nights in the spotlight as “comparable to running a marathon in heels every night”. Her feathered headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the steps to the platform from the dressing rooms three floors below in the lower level. I had to start early for my cue so I could catch my breath before I made my entrance. One is sweating the whole time but maintaining this illusion that it’s easy and beautiful and dreamlike.”
It could be this is where the fascination of the showgirl really resides. In the chaos of 2025 there is a longing for fantasy. Who better to turn to than these performers, who have always embodied dreams, perfection and a world where nobody falters.
