Following a three-decade run on the Las Vegas strip, the showgirls from the production Jubilee! executed their last synchronised kick in 2016. The extravaganza, renowned for its intricate costumes designed by style icon Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to falling audience numbers and disappointed critics who called it a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Currently, roughly eight years later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl style, is experiencing a revival.
The Master of Glitz
Known as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glamour his defining aesthetic, dressing everyone from Marilyn Monroe to music superstars. Earlier this month, a “barely-there” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, far exceeding its projected value, while a metallic tasseled bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more enticing for the younger performer who is seeking something other than what they were accustomed to”, he told a newspaper. “Contemporary performers are striving for a show-stopping, more spectacular, show-stopping, entrance-making statement.”
The Musical Revival
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the centre of mainstream fashion in 2025 propelled by Taylor Swift. In the past few months, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The bedazzled bra and thong, feathered armbands and shimmering headpiece were tailor-made for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer has company. This year, glamorous nods have been incorporated by music artists including Dua Lipa as they whizzed across arena stages in sequins, revealing designs and plumes, highlighted against camp sets. A top stylist her creative director mentioned in an interview with Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the 50s, her performers wafted giant ostrich feather fans.
Pulling from the Past
These artists and other chart toppers also reference historical entertainment forms, including burlesque and chorus line references. The outcome are vastly different from the 1990s era pop style of short shirts and utilitarian trousers, and street-style dance moves that were popular earlier.
But not everyone are on board with this showgirl revival. A former performer, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “employed as an umbrella term covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently today's icons.”
The Coveted Classic Look
For younger and modern stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a famous actress paid tribute to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the star wore a semi-sheer embellished dress created by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, Miley Cyrus 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, Sabrina Carpenter wore a trio of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a favorite among collectors.
“Showgirls inspire fond memories for a historical elegance,” says Su Kim Chung, head of special collections at the University of Nevada, who documents the history of showgirls. “Today it is considered a sort of ‘safe’ appeal because it has been modified. It has got all the glamour, the crystals and the sparkle but without the bare skin.”
More Than Simply Style: An Symbol of the City
She says showgirls are key to the imagery of Las Vegas. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was flanked by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-based productions, the historian says they are still featured as an symbol of the city, showing up at corporate events and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a enduring symbol of Las Vegas glamour,” the expert says.
The Allure of Escape
Hardy says the complete change of a showgirl persona is part of the appeal. This is a notion the singer alludes to in a recent behind-the-scenes film that documents the off-camera action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling preparations, gym sessions and countless performances across multiple nations, each running for 3.5 hours.
She recalls her own stage routines as “similar to running a marathon in high heels every night”. Her headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the staircase 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 recover before I performed. You’re sweating the whole time but creating this image that it’s easy and stunning and ethereal.”
Perhaps this is where the appeal of the showgirl really lies. In the busyness of 2025 there is a desire for fantasy. What better figure to emulate than such icons, who have always personified make-believe, flawlessness and a universe where nobody falters.
