🔗 Share this article

After a 31-year tenure on the iconic Vegas strip, the dancers from the production Jubilee! took a final synchronised kick in 2016. The show, famous for its elaborate costumes crafted by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, ended its run due to dwindling audience numbers and unimpressed commentators who described it as a spectacle “stuck in the past”.

Now, roughly eight years later, showgirls, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is back.

A Sultan of Sequins

Dubbed the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made over-the-top stage sparkle his defining aesthetic, clothing everyone from screen legends to Madonna. Recently, a “naked” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, seven times its initial estimate, while a silver and gold beaded bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.

“In my view it looks more enticing for the emerging artists who is seeking something other than what they were accustomed to”, he told a media outlet. “Today's artists are embracing a show-stopping, more theatrical, show-stopping, memorable statement.”

The Pop Culture Revival

It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the centre of popular culture in 2025 largely due to a chart-topping superstar. Recently, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, plumed armbands and glittering headpiece were ideal for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.

Swift has company. This year, showgirl inspirations have been adopted by pop stars including Miley Cyrus as they whizzed across arena stages in glitter, cut-outs and plumes, illuminated against camp sets. Her fashion curator Lorenzo Posocco mentioned in an interview with Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the mid-century, Lipa’s dancers fluttered giant ostrich feather fans.

Drawing from History

Lipa, Carpenter and other successful musicians also draw on historical entertainment forms, including vaudeville and ensemble references. The results are worlds away from the 90s teen pop of crop tops and cargo pants, and urban dance moves that preceded this trend.

But certain observers are convinced with this showgirl renaissance. A former performer, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the early 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “employed as an broad label covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even modern pop stars.”

The Coveted Vintage Look

For millennial and millennial stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a style icon paid tribute to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the actor wore a semi-sheer sequined dress created by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, a singer paid an significant price to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn at an awards show to perform at the Grammys. In September, the singer wore a trio of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a favorite among collectors.

“Showgirls bring about nostalgia for a bygone era of glitz,” says a historian, head of special collections at the a Las Vegas university, who studies the story of showgirls. “Now it is viewed as a sort of ‘acceptable’ appeal because it has been updated. It has got all the sophistication, the sparkles and the glitter but without the bare skin.”

More Than Just Fashion: An Symbol of Las Vegas

The expert says showgirls are key to the identity of Sin City. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was flanked by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas does not host any traditional showgirl productions, Jung says they are still employed as an symbol of the city, being present at conventions and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a enduring icon of Vegas glamour,” Chung says.

An Allure of Transformation

Nancy Hardy says the transformative effect of a stage character is part of the appeal. This is a notion Taylor Swift alludes to in a recent documentary series that shows the behind-the-scenes action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included intense preparations, gym sessions and numerous shows across 21 countries, each going on for 3.5 hours.

The performer describes her own nights in the spotlight as “similar to running a marathon in heels every night”. Her headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the stairs to the platform from the backstage area three floors below in the basement. I had to head up ahead of time for my cue so I could recover before I went on stage. You are perspiring the whole time but creating this illusion that it’s easy and gorgeous and dreamlike.”

Perhaps this is where the true allure of the showgirl really resides. In the complexity of 2025 there is a craving for fantasy. Who better to look to than showgirls, who have always personified make-believe, flawlessness and a world where nobody falters.