After a three-decade run on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the showgirls from the production Jubilee! gave one last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The production, famous for its ornate costumes created by style icon Bob Mackie, came to an end due to dwindling audience numbers and critical commentators who labeled it a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Currently, almost a decade later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is experiencing a revival.
A Sultan of Sparkle
Known as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made over-the-top stage sparkle his defining aesthetic, outfitting everyone from Marilyn Monroe to music superstars. In a recent auction, a “naked” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, seven times its projected value, while a metallic beaded bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more attractive for the new generation of stars who is seeking something other than what they knew from childhood”, he explained to a publication. “New stars are striving for a theatrical, more theatrical, attention-grabbing, grand statement.”
A Mainstream Revival
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the centre of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 propelled by a global pop icon. Earlier this year, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, plumed armbands and sparkly headpiece were ideal for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift has company. This year, showgirl inspirations have been adopted by music artists including Dua Lipa as they whizzed across arena stages in glitter, revealing designs and plumes, illuminated against theatrical sets. Her fashion curator her creative director mentioned in an interview with a style publication he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the 1950s, her performers fluttered giant plumed accessories.
Drawing from Tradition
These artists and other chart toppers also take inspiration from historical entertainment forms, including classic theater and dance line references. The results are worlds away from the 90s Britney Spears era of short shirts and baggy pants, and urban dance moves that preceded this trend.
But not everyone are enthusiastic with this showgirl renaissance. Nancy Hardy, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the 00s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “used as an catch-all phrase covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even modern pop stars.”
The Highly Sought-After Classic Style
For millennial and modern stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, Zendaya honored to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the star wore a translucent embellished dress made by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, Miley Cyrus paid an private amount to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn at an awards show to perform at the Grammys. In September, the singer wore a trio of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among fashion collectors.
“The showgirl aesthetic inspire fond memories for a bygone era of glitz,” says a historian, a curator at the University of Nevada, who studies the story of showgirls. “Today it is seen as a sort of ‘acceptable’ allure because it has been modified. It has got all the sophistication, the crystals and the sparkle but without the exposure.”
A Than Just Fashion: An Symbol of Vegas
The expert says this figure are key to the imagery of Sin City. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was accompanied by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-based productions, Jung says they are still employed as an emblem of the city, being present at corporate events and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a remaining icon of Vegas glamour,” she says.
An Appeal of Transformation
The former showgirl says the complete change of a showgirl is part of the attraction. This is a notion Swift references in a recent documentary series that shows the off-camera action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling preparations, training and numerous concerts across dozens of cities, each running for 3.5 hours.
She explains her own stage routines as “comparable to extreme physical exertion in stilettos every night”. Her headpiece tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the staircase to the stage from the green rooms three floors below in the lower level. I had to head up ahead of time for my moment so I could recover before I made my entrance. One is sweating the whole time but creating this image that it’s easy and beautiful and magical.”
It could be this is where the fascination of the showgirl fantasy really is found. In the busyness of 2025 there is a desire for a break from reality. What better figure to look to than showgirls, who have always embodied make-believe, perfection and a universe where nobody makes a mistake.
