Following a 31-year tenure on the iconic Vegas strip, the dancers from the spectacle Jubilee! took a final synchronised kick in 2016. The extravaganza, renowned for its ornate costumes created by style icon Bob Mackie, came to an end due to declining audience numbers and unimpressed reviewers who called it a spectacle “trapped in time”.
Today, nearly ten years later, the showgirl, or at least the showgirl style, is back.
The Master of Glitz
Known as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made theatrical stage sparkle his signature style, dressing everyone from Hollywood icons to Madonna. Recently, a “see-through” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, well over its initial estimate, while a shimmering fringed bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more attractive for the new generation of stars who is seeking something other than what they grew up with”, he stated in an interview with a media outlet. “Today's artists are striving for a glamorous, more dramatic, show-stopping, entrance-making statement.”
The Musical Revival
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the heart of mainstream fashion in 2025 thanks to a global pop icon. Earlier this year, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The bedazzled bra and thong, feathered armbands and shimmering headpiece were perfect for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift has company. This year, glamorous nods have been incorporated by music artists including Sabrina Carpenter as they whizzed across arena stages in sparkles, cut-outs and feathers, highlighted against overstated sets. A top stylist her creative director told Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the 50s, her performers waved giant feathered fans.
Drawing from History
Lipa, Carpenter and other successful musicians also reference classic entertainment forms, including vaudeville and ensemble references. The results are vastly different from the 1990s era pop style of short shirts and baggy pants, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that were popular earlier.
But some critics are on board with this showgirl revival. An ex-showgirl, a ex- Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the 2000s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “used as an catch-all phrase encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even today's icons.”
The Highly Sought-After Retro Style
For millennial and modern stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a famous actress gave a nod to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actor wore a translucent embellished dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, Miley Cyrus 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, Sabrina Carpenter wore a trio of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among collectors.
“This style inspire nostalgia for a past glamour,” says an archivist, a curator at the University of Nevada, who studies the legacy of showgirls. “Now it is considered a sort of ‘toned-down’ sexy because it has been modified. It has got all the elegance, the sparkles and the sparkle but without the exposure.”
More Than Just Fashion: An Symbol of the City
The expert says showgirls are key to the iconography of Las Vegas. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was flanked by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas no longer has any traditional showgirl productions, Jung says they are still employed as an symbol of the city, appearing at gatherings and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a enduring figure of Vegas glitz and glamour,” the expert says.
The Allure of Escape
The former showgirl says the transformative effect of a showgirl persona is part of the appeal. It’s something the singer references in a latest docuseries that captures the backstage action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting practice sessions, gym sessions and numerous concerts across multiple nations, each going on for 3.5 hours.
The performer describes her own showgirl performances as “similar to completing an endurance race in heels every night”. Her headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the steps to the platform from the dressing rooms three floors below in the lower level. I had to leave early for my moment so I could rest before I made my entrance. One is sweating the whole time but maintaining this fantasy that it’s easy and stunning and ethereal.”
Maybe this is where the fascination of the showgirl fantasy 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 embodied fantasy, idealism and a world where nobody falters.
