After a 31-year stint on the Las Vegas strip, the performers from the revue Jubilee! took a final choreographed kick in 2016. The show, famous for its intricate costumes crafted by style icon Bob Mackie, came to an end due to dwindling audience numbers and critical reviewers who called it a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Currently, roughly eight years later, the showgirl, or at least the showgirl style, is experiencing a revival.
The Sultan of Glitz
Known as the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made over-the-top showgirl glamour his trademark look, clothing everyone from screen legends to pop royalty. In a recent auction, a “naked” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, seven times its estimated price, while a metallic fringed bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more attractive for the younger performer who is seeking something other than what they grew up with”, he explained to a publication. “Today's artists are striving for a theatrical, more dramatic, attention-grabbing, entrance-making statement.”
A Mainstream Revival
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the epicenter of mainstream fashion in 2025 propelled by a chart-topping superstar. Earlier this year, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The bedazzled bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and shimmering headpiece were ideal for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift isn't alone. This year, glamorous nods have been incorporated by music artists including Miley Cyrus as they danced across concert platforms in glitter, strategic openings and ostrich feathers, highlighted against theatrical sets. Lipa’s stylist Lorenzo Posocco told a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the 50s, the backup dancers fluttered giant ostrich feather fans.
Drawing from History
Modern stars 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 Britney Spears era of crop tops and baggy pants, and street-style dance moves that came before them.
But some critics are on board with this showgirl revival. A former performer, a former Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the early 2000s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “employed as an umbrella term encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even Taylor Swift.”
A Coveted Retro Style
For younger and millennial stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a famous actress honored to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the actress wore a see-through embellished dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, another pop star paid an undisclosed sum 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 collection of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among vintage enthusiasts.
“This style bring about a sense of longing for a bygone era of glitz,” says an archivist, an expert at the a Las Vegas university, who documents the story of showgirls. “Today it is seen as a sort of ‘toned-down’ appeal because it has been modified. It has got all the elegance, the crystals and the shine but without the bare skin.”
More Than Simply Fashion: An Symbol of Vegas
The expert says showgirls are integral to the iconography of Sin City. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was surrounded by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas no longer has any traditional showgirl productions, the historian says they are still employed as an logo of the city, appearing at conventions and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a remaining symbol of Vegas glamour,” Chung says.
An Appeal of Illusion
Nancy Hardy says the transformative effect of a showgirl is part of the appeal. This is a notion the singer references in a new documentary series that shows the off-camera action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included intense rehearsals, gym sessions and numerous concerts across 21 countries, each going on for 3.5 hours.
Hardy recalls her own stage routines as “similar to running a marathon in stilettos every night”. Her headdress was 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the stairs to the performance area 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 catch my breath before I went on stage. You are working hard the whole time but crafting this illusion that it’s easy and gorgeous and ethereal.”
Maybe this is where the fascination of the showgirl really lies. In the chaos of 2025 there is a craving for fantasy. What better figure to turn to than such icons, who have always personified dreams, perfection and a realm where no one falters.
