After a three-decade tenure on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the dancers from the spectacle Jubilee! gave one last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The extravaganza, known for its ornate costumes designed by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, came to an end due to declining audience numbers and unimpressed critics who described it as a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Today, roughly eight years later, the showgirl, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is experiencing a revival.
A Sultan of Glitz
Dubbed the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glitz his defining aesthetic, outfitting everyone from Marilyn Monroe to Madonna. Earlier this month, a “barely-there” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, seven times its initial estimate, while a silver and gold fringed bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more attractive for the new generation of stars who is desiring something other than what they grew up with”, he told a newspaper. “New stars are pushing toward a show-stopping, more spectacular, breathtaking, entrance-making statement.”
The Musical Resurgence
It’s a look that glided all the way to the centre of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 propelled by Taylor Swift. In the past few months, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The bedazzled bra and thong, plumed armbands and glittering headpiece were perfect for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
She has company. This year, showgirl references have been embraced by music artists including Sabrina Carpenter as they zoomed across concert platforms in sequins, cut-outs and ostrich feathers, spotlighted against camp sets. Her fashion curator Lorenzo Posocco mentioned in an interview with Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the 1950s, Lipa’s dancers waved giant feathered fans.
Drawing from History
Lipa, Carpenter and other chart toppers also reference historical performances, including burlesque and chorus line references. The outcome are vastly different from the 1990s era Britney Spears era of crop tops and baggy pants, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that came before them.
But certain observers are on board with this glamour resurgence. An ex-showgirl, a ex- Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “used as an broad label including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even today's icons.”
The Coveted Vintage Style
For millennial and millennial stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a famous actress honored to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the actor wore a translucent embellished dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, another pop star paid an significant price to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn earlier in the year to perform at the Grammys. In September, the singer wore a series of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among fashion collectors.
“This style evoke fond memories for a past glamour,” says an archivist, a curator at the a Las Vegas university, who studies the history of showgirls. “Currently it is seen as a sort of ‘acceptable’ appeal because it has been updated. It has got all the elegance, the rhinestones and the glitter but without the nudity.”
A Than Just Style: An Symbol of Las Vegas
She says this figure are key to the identity of Vegas. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was surrounded by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas does not host any traditional showgirl productions, Jung says they are still employed as an logo of the city, appearing at conventions and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a enduring figure of Vegas spectacle,” she says.
An Allure of Illusion
Nancy Hardy says the transformative effect of a showgirl is part of the allure. It’s something the singer references in a new docuseries that documents the off-camera action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling preparations, gym sessions and 149 concerts across 21 countries, each going on for 3.5 hours.
The performer explains her own showgirl performances as “comparable to running a marathon in stilettos every night”. Her headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the steps to the stage from the backstage area three floors below in the lower level. I had to head up ahead of time for my moment so I could recover before I went on stage. You are sweating the whole time but creating this illusion that it’s effortless and stunning and magical.”
It could be this is where the true allure of the showgirl really lies. In the chaos of 2025 there is a longing for a break from reality. What better figure to emulate than such icons, who have always represented fantasy, idealism and a universe where no one misses a mark.
