After a 31-year stint on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the performers from the production Jubilee! took a final perfectly timed kick in 2016. The production, famous for its intricate costumes crafted by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, came to an end due to falling audience numbers and disappointed reviewers who described it as a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Currently, nearly ten years later, showgirls, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is making a comeback.
A Master of Glitz
Known as the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made theatrical showgirl glamour his signature style, clothing 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 initial estimate, while a metallic tasseled bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more attractive for the emerging artists who is desiring something other than what they were accustomed to”, he stated in an interview with a publication. “Contemporary performers are striving for a show-stopping, more spectacular, breathtaking, entrance-making statement.”
The Pop Culture Comeback
It’s a look that glided all the way to the epicenter of mainstream fashion in 2025 propelled by a global pop icon. In the past few months, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The bedazzled bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and sparkly headpiece were tailor-made for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift has company. This year, showgirl references have been incorporated by pop stars including Miley Cyrus as they zoomed across world tours in glitter, revealing designs and ostrich feathers, spotlighted against overstated sets. A top stylist Lorenzo Posocco mentioned in an interview with a style publication he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the mid-century, the backup dancers wafted giant feathered fans.
Pulling from History
Lipa, Carpenter and other hitmakers also draw on 19th-century entertainment forms, including burlesque and chorus line references. The outcome are poles apart from the late-century Britney Spears era of short shirts and utilitarian trousers, and urban dance moves that were popular earlier.
But certain observers are on board with this showgirl renaissance. An ex-showgirl, a ex- Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the early 2000s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word term is being “treated as an broad label encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even today's icons.”
A Coveted Vintage Style
For gen Z and millennial stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a famous actress honored to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the star wore a see-through embellished dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by 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 collection of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among collectors.
“This style bring about nostalgia for a historical elegance,” says Su Kim Chung, head of special collections at the a Las Vegas university, who documents the history of showgirls. “Currently it is viewed as a sort of ‘safe’ appeal because it has been adapted. It has got all the sophistication, the sparkles and the sparkle but without the bare skin.”
More Than Simply Style: An Symbol of Las Vegas
She says showgirls are integral to the imagery of Sin City. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was flanked by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-centric productions, the historian says they are still employed as an symbol of the city, showing up at conventions and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a lasting figure of Vegas glamour,” she says.
The Appeal of Escape
Nancy Hardy says the magical transformation of a showgirl is part of the allure. This idea Swift references in a recent documentary series that captures the backstage action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting preparations, workouts and countless concerts across multiple nations, each going on for 3.5 hours.
Hardy explains her own showgirl performances as “like running a marathon in stilettos every night”. Her feathered headdress tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the stairs to the stage from the backstage area three floors below in the basement. I had to leave early for my moment so I could catch my breath before I went on stage. You are sweating the whole time but maintaining this image that it’s simple and beautiful and ethereal.”
It could be this is where the fascination of the showgirl fantasy really is found. In the chaos of 2025 there is a desire for fantasy. Is there anyone better to look to than these performers, who have always embodied make-believe, perfection and a realm where no one falters.
