After a 31-year stint on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the dancers from the production Jubilee! executed their last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The production, renowned for its intricate costumes crafted by style icon Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to declining audience numbers and critical critics who labeled it a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Today, almost a decade later, the showgirl persona, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is experiencing a revival.
The Master of Sparkle
Dubbed the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glamour his defining aesthetic, clothing everyone from Hollywood icons to music superstars. In a recent auction, a “barely-there” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, well over its initial estimate, while a shimmering fringed bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more attractive for the new generation of stars who is looking for something other than what they were accustomed to”, he stated in an interview with a newspaper. “Today's artists are pushing toward a show-stopping, more dramatic, breathtaking, grand statement.”
The Musical Resurgence
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the heart of popular culture in 2025 largely due to Taylor Swift. In the past few months, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, feathered armbands and glittering headpiece were perfect for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer is part of a trend. This year, showgirl inspirations have been incorporated by music artists including Miley Cyrus as they zoomed across arena stages in glitter, revealing designs and plumes, highlighted against camp sets. Lipa’s stylist a fashion expert mentioned in an interview with a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the 1950s, Lipa’s dancers wafted giant feathered fans.
Pulling from Tradition
These artists and other successful musicians also take inspiration from historical performances, including vaudeville and chorus line references. The final look are worlds away from the 90s Britney Spears era of crop tops and utilitarian trousers, and urban dance moves that were popular earlier.
But certain observers are convinced with this glamour resurgence. Nancy Hardy, a ex- Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the 2000s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “used as an umbrella term covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even modern pop stars.”
The Highly Sought-After Retro Look
For gen Z and young adult stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a style icon gave a nod to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the actor wore a semi-sheer embellished dress created by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, 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, Sabrina Carpenter wore a collection of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a favorite among fashion collectors.
“This style bring about nostalgia for a past glamour,” says Su Kim Chung, head of special collections at the University of Nevada, who documents the legacy of showgirls. “Now it is considered a sort of ‘toned-down’ allure because it has been adapted. It has got all the sophistication, the sparkles and the glitter but without the exposure.”
More Than Just Style: An Icon of Las Vegas
She says this figure are key to the iconography of Sin City. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was accompanied by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-centric productions, Jung says they are still featured as an logo of the city, appearing at corporate events and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a lasting figure of Las Vegas glitz and glamour,” she says.
The Allure of Transformation
Hardy says the transformative effect of a showgirl is part of the appeal. This idea Swift alludes to in a new behind-the-scenes film that documents the off-camera action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting practice sessions, training and countless concerts across multiple nations, each running for 3.5 hours.
She recalls her own stage routines as “similar to completing an endurance race in high heels every night”. Her feathered headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the staircase to the stage from the dressing rooms three floors below in the basement. I had to leave early for my entrance so I could rest before I performed. You’re sweating the whole time but creating this fantasy that it’s effortless and beautiful and magical.”
Perhaps this is where the appeal of the showgirl really is found. In the chaos of 2025 there is a longing for fantasy. Who better to emulate than these performers, who have always personified make-believe, flawlessness and a universe where nobody misses a mark.
