Following a three-decade run on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the showgirls from the production Jubilee! gave one last choreographed kick in 2016. The show, famous for its ornate costumes crafted by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to dwindling audience numbers and critical critics who described it as a spectacle “trapped in time”.
Today, nearly ten years later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is experiencing a revival.
The King of Glitz
Known as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made over-the-top showgirl glamour his defining aesthetic, clothing everyone from Marilyn Monroe to pop royalty. Earlier this month, a “naked” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, far exceeding its estimated price, while a metallic beaded bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more attractive for the emerging artists who is looking for something other than what they knew from childhood”, he stated in an interview with a newspaper. “New stars are striving for a glamorous, more spectacular, attention-grabbing, memorable statement.”
A Mainstream Resurgence
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the centre 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 bedazzled bra and thong, feathered armbands and shimmering headpiece were perfect for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
She isn't alone. This year, glamorous nods have been incorporated by singers including Miley Cyrus as they danced across arena stages in sequins, cut-outs and ostrich feathers, highlighted against overstated sets. A top stylist Lorenzo Posocco mentioned in an interview with a style publication he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the 50s, her performers fluttered giant feathered fans.
Drawing from Tradition
Modern stars and other hitmakers also draw on historical entertainment forms, including classic theater and dance line references. The final look are vastly different from the 1990s era Britney Spears era of short shirts and utilitarian trousers, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that were popular earlier.
But certain observers are convinced with this glamour resurgence. A former performer, a former Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the early 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “treated as an broad label including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly today's icons.”
A Coveted Vintage Look
For younger and millennial stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a style icon honored to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actor wore a see-through beaded dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, Miley Cyrus paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn previously to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a trio of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among vintage enthusiasts.
“This style evoke nostalgia for a bygone era of glitz,” says a historian, an expert at the an academic institution, who documents the legacy of showgirls. “Today it is viewed as a sort of ‘acceptable’ allure because it has been adapted. It has got all the sophistication, the crystals and the glitter but without the bare skin.”
A Than Just Fashion: An Symbol of Vegas
Chung says this figure are key to the iconography of Las Vegas. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was accompanied by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-based productions, the historian says they are still used as an logo of the city, being present at corporate events and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a remaining icon of Vegas spectacle,” she says.
The Allure of Illusion
Nancy Hardy says the complete change of a showgirl persona is part of the allure. This is a notion Taylor Swift alludes to in a latest behind-the-scenes film that captures the behind-the-scenes action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included intense practice sessions, training and numerous shows across 21 countries, each going on for 3.5 hours.
She recalls her own showgirl performances as “comparable to running a marathon in stilettos every night”. Her feathered headdress weighed 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 start early for my entrance so I could recover before I performed. You are perspiring the whole time but crafting this illusion that it’s simple and stunning and ethereal.”
It could be this is where the appeal of the showgirl fantasy really resides. In the busyness of 2025 there is a craving for fantasy. What better figure to emulate than such icons, who have always represented fantasy, idealism and a universe where nobody makes a mistake.
