Following a 31-year stint on the Las Vegas strip, the dancers from the production Jubilee! took a final choreographed kick in 2016. The production, known for its elaborate costumes crafted by style icon Bob Mackie, came to an end due to falling audience numbers and critical commentators who described it as a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Currently, almost a decade 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 theatrical showgirl glamour his trademark look, dressing everyone from Hollywood icons to Madonna. Earlier this month, a “naked” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, seven times its estimated price, while a shimmering tasseled bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more appealing for the younger performer who is seeking something other than what they knew from childhood”, he stated in an interview with a newspaper. “Contemporary performers are pushing toward a show-stopping, more dramatic, show-stopping, entrance-making statement.”
A Pop Culture Revival
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the epicenter of mainstream fashion in 2025 propelled by a global pop icon. In the past few months, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, plumed armbands and shimmering headpiece were tailor-made for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer isn't alone. This year, glamorous nods have been embraced by music artists including Dua Lipa as they danced across arena stages in sparkles, revealing designs and ostrich feathers, spotlighted against theatrical 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 – referencing pictures from the 50s, Lipa’s dancers wafted giant feathered fans.
Pulling from the Past
These artists and other chart toppers also reference classic entertainment forms, including burlesque and chorus line references. The results are poles apart from the 90s pop style of revealing tops and utilitarian trousers, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that preceded this trend.
But some critics are enthusiastic with this glamour resurgence. A former performer, a ex- Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word term is being “employed as an umbrella term encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly modern pop stars.”
The Highly Sought-After Retro Style
For gen Z and young adult stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become incredibly sought-after. In 2024, a style icon gave a nod to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actor wore a translucent sequined dress made by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, another pop star paid an private amount to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn previously to perform at the Grammys. In September, Sabrina Carpenter wore a series of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among fashion collectors.
“Showgirls bring about nostalgia for a past glamour,” says an archivist, a curator at the a Las Vegas university, who studies the story of showgirls. “Currently it is seen as a sort of ‘toned-down’ sexy because it has been modified. It has got all the elegance, the crystals and the shine but without the nudity.”
A Than Just Fashion: An Symbol of Las Vegas
She says this figure are central to the iconography of Vegas. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was flanked by two showgirls. While Las Vegas does not host any traditional showgirl productions, Jung says they are still used as an symbol of the city, appearing at conventions and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a remaining symbol of Vegas glitz and glamour,” Chung says.
An Appeal of Transformation
Nancy Hardy says the transformative effect of a showgirl persona is part of the attraction. This is a notion Swift hints at in a latest docuseries that shows the off-camera action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included intense rehearsals, training and countless concerts across 21 countries, each going on for 3.5 hours.
She explains her own showgirl performances as “like extreme physical exertion in stilettos every night”. Her headpiece tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the steps to the platform from the green rooms three floors below in the basement. I had to start early for my cue so I could recover before I performed. You are perspiring the whole time but crafting this fantasy that it’s simple and gorgeous and dreamlike.”
Maybe this is where the appeal of the showgirl really resides. In the chaos of 2025 there is a desire for a break from reality. What better figure to look to than showgirls, who have always embodied fantasy, flawlessness and a universe where no one makes a mistake.