After a long-running tenure on the iconic Vegas strip, the dancers from the revue Jubilee! took a final perfectly timed kick in 2016. The production, known for its elaborate costumes created by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, came to an end due to dwindling audience numbers and critical commentators who described it as a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Currently, nearly ten years later, the showgirl, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is making a comeback.
A King of Sparkle
Referred to as the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made dramatic stage sparkle his defining aesthetic, clothing everyone from Marilyn Monroe to music superstars. Recently, a “naked” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, far exceeding its estimated price, while a metallic fringed bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more attractive for the younger performer who is seeking something other than what they were accustomed to”, he stated in an interview with a newspaper. “Today's artists are pushing toward a show-stopping, more dramatic, attention-grabbing, entrance-making statement.”
The Mainstream Revival
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the centre of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 largely due to a chart-topping superstar. Recently, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The bedazzled bra and thong, feathered armbands and glittering headpiece were tailor-made for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift is part of a trend. This year, showgirl inspirations have been incorporated by pop stars including Dua Lipa as they zoomed across world tours in sparkles, revealing designs and feathers, highlighted against theatrical sets. Her fashion curator Lorenzo Posocco explained to a style publication he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the mid-century, Lipa’s dancers wafted giant plumed accessories.
Drawing from Tradition
These artists and other successful musicians also reference historical performances, including burlesque and ensemble references. The outcome are worlds away from the 90s pop style of short shirts and utilitarian trousers, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that came before them.
But certain observers are convinced with this showgirl renaissance. An ex-showgirl, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the early 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “used as an broad label covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even modern pop stars.”
A Coveted Classic Style
For millennial and modern 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 star wore a see-through beaded dress created 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 significant price to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn earlier in the year to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a series of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among vintage enthusiasts.
“This style bring about fond memories for a historical elegance,” says a historian, a curator at the University of Nevada, who researches the story of showgirls. “Currently it is considered a sort of ‘toned-down’ sexy because it has been updated. It has got all the sophistication, the rhinestones and the shine but without the exposure.”
More Than Simply Fashion: An Symbol of Las Vegas
She says this figure are key to the iconography of Vegas. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was flanked by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas does not host any traditional showgirl productions, the historian says they are still employed as an logo of the city, showing up at corporate events and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a enduring figure of Vegas glitz and glamour,” she says.
The Allure of Illusion
The former showgirl says the magical transformation of a showgirl persona is part of the allure. It’s something Swift alludes to in a latest docuseries that shows the behind-the-scenes action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting preparations, gym sessions and 149 performances across multiple nations, each running for 3.5 hours.
Hardy explains her own showgirl performances as “like completing an endurance race in high heels every night”. Her feathered headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the stairs to the stage from the dressing rooms three floors below in the lower level. I had to head up ahead of time for my entrance so I could recover before I went on stage. You’re perspiring the whole time but crafting this image that it’s effortless and beautiful and magical.”
Perhaps this is where the appeal of the showgirl fantasy really is found. In the complexity of 2025 there is a craving for a break from reality. What better figure to turn to than showgirls, who have always embodied fantasy, idealism and a world where nobody falters.
