After a three-decade stint on the iconic Vegas strip, the showgirls from the revue Jubilee! executed their last choreographed kick in 2016. The production, famous for its intricate costumes designed by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, ended its run due to declining audience numbers and unimpressed critics who described it as a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Now, roughly eight years later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl style, is back.
The King of Glitz
Known as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made dramatic stage sparkle his signature style, dressing everyone from Hollywood icons to Madonna. Recently, a “barely-there” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, far exceeding its projected value, while a silver and gold fringed bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more enticing for the younger performer who is looking for something other than what they knew from childhood”, he explained to a publication. “Contemporary performers are embracing a theatrical, more dramatic, breathtaking, grand statement.”
A Pop Culture Comeback
It’s a look that glided all the way to the heart of popular culture in 2025 thanks to Taylor Swift. In the past few months, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The bedazzled bra and thong, plumed armbands and glittering headpiece were ideal for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
She has company. This year, glamorous nods have been embraced by singers including Miley Cyrus as they whizzed across concert platforms in glitter, strategic openings and feathers, highlighted against camp sets. Lipa’s 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 1950s, the backup dancers wafted giant ostrich feather fans.
Drawing from the Past
Lipa, Carpenter and other successful musicians also take inspiration from classic entertainment forms, including vaudeville and dance line references. The outcome are poles apart from the 1990s era pop style of short shirts and baggy pants, and urban dance moves that were popular earlier.
But not everyone are on board with this glamour resurgence. A former performer, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the 2000s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “treated as an broad label covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly Taylor Swift.”
The Coveted Vintage Style
For gen Z and millennial stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become incredibly sought-after. In 2024, a style icon honored to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the star wore a semi-sheer beaded dress created by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, Miley Cyrus paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn earlier in the year to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a trio of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among fashion collectors.
“The showgirl aesthetic bring about a sense of longing for a historical elegance,” says Su Kim Chung, head of special collections at the an academic institution, who studies the legacy of showgirls. “Currently it is considered a sort of ‘safe’ sexy because it has been modified. It has got all the glamour, the crystals and the glitter but without the exposure.”
A Than Just Fashion: An Icon of Vegas
Chung says the showgirl image are central to the iconography of Las Vegas. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was surrounded by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas does not host any showgirl-based productions, Chung says they are still used as an symbol of the city, showing up at gatherings and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a remaining icon of Las Vegas glitz and glamour,” Chung says.
The Allure of Escape
Nancy Hardy says the complete change of a showgirl is part of the appeal. It’s something the singer hints at in a new docuseries that documents the behind-the-scenes action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included intense preparations, gym sessions and numerous performances across multiple nations, each lasting 3.5 hours.
She recalls her own showgirl performances as “comparable to completing an endurance race in heels every night”. Her headpiece weighed 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the staircase to the performance area from the green rooms three floors below in the underground. I had to start early for my entrance so I could catch my breath before I went on stage. You’re sweating the whole time but crafting this image that it’s easy and stunning and ethereal.”
Perhaps this is where the true allure of the showgirl really lies. In the busyness of 2025 there is a longing for escapism. Who better to emulate than these performers, who have always represented dreams, flawlessness and a universe where nobody misses a mark.
