After a 31-year stint on the Las Vegas strip, the performers from the production Jubilee! executed their last choreographed kick in 2016. The extravaganza, famous for its intricate costumes designed by style icon Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to falling audience numbers and critical commentators who described it as a spectacle “trapped in time”.
Now, roughly eight years later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl style, is experiencing a revival.
The Master of Glitz
Dubbed the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made over-the-top stage sparkle his signature style, outfitting everyone from screen legends to Madonna. In a recent auction, a “see-through” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, well over its initial estimate, while a silver and gold beaded bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more appealing for the new generation of stars who is desiring something other than what they grew up with”, he explained to a media outlet. “Contemporary performers are striving for a show-stopping, more theatrical, attention-grabbing, memorable statement.”
A Mainstream Resurgence
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the heart of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 propelled by a global pop icon. Recently, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and glittering headpiece were tailor-made for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift is part of a trend. This year, showgirl references have been adopted by pop stars including Sabrina Carpenter as they whizzed across concert platforms in sequins, strategic openings and feathers, illuminated against overstated sets. A top stylist her creative director told a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the 1950s, her performers waved giant plumed accessories.
Pulling from the Past
Modern stars and other successful musicians also take inspiration from historical performances, including vaudeville and ensemble references. The outcome are poles apart from the 1990s era pop style of revealing tops and utilitarian trousers, and street-style dance moves that were popular earlier.
But some critics are on board with this showgirl renaissance. An ex-showgirl, a ex- Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the 00s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word term is being “employed as an umbrella term covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently modern pop stars.”
The Highly Sought-After Vintage Style
For gen Z and young adult stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a style icon gave a nod to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actor wore a semi-sheer embellished dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, a singer paid an private amount to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn previously to perform at the Grammys. In September, Sabrina Carpenter wore a trio of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among fashion collectors.
“Showgirls inspire a sense of longing for a historical elegance,” says a historian, an expert at the an academic institution, who documents the history of showgirls. “Now it is considered a sort of ‘safe’ allure because it has been adapted. It has got all the sophistication, the sparkles and the sparkle but without the exposure.”
A Than Just Style: An Symbol of the City
Chung says this figure are central to the iconography of Las Vegas. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was surrounded by two showgirls. While Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-based productions, Jung says they are still featured as an emblem of the city, showing up at corporate events and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a lasting figure of Vegas spectacle,” she says.
The Allure of Illusion
Hardy says the transformative effect of a stage character is part of the appeal. It’s something Swift hints at in a recent documentary series that documents the behind-the-scenes action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included intense preparations, gym sessions and 149 shows across multiple nations, each going on for 3.5 hours.
The performer describes her own nights in the spotlight as “comparable to extreme physical exertion in heels every night”. Her feathered headdress tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the steps to the platform from the green rooms three floors below in the lower level. I had to head up ahead of time for my entrance so I could rest before I made my entrance. You are sweating the whole time but maintaining this illusion that it’s effortless and beautiful and magical.”
Perhaps this is where the true allure of the showgirl fantasy really is found. In the busyness of 2025 there is a longing for fantasy. Who better to turn to than such icons, who have always personified dreams, perfection and a universe where nobody misses a mark.
