Following a long-running run on the iconic Vegas strip, the performers from the spectacle Jubilee! took a final synchronised kick in 2016. The show, renowned for its elaborate costumes designed by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to declining audience numbers and disappointed critics who labeled it a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Today, almost a decade later, the showgirl, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is back.
The Sultan of Glitz
Known as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glamour his signature style, dressing everyone from Hollywood icons to music superstars. In a recent auction, a “naked” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, seven times its initial estimate, while a silver and gold fringed bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more appealing for the new generation of stars who is looking for something other than what they knew from childhood”, he explained to a publication. “Contemporary performers are pushing toward a theatrical, more dramatic, breathtaking, entrance-making statement.”
A Pop Culture Resurgence
It’s a look that glided all the way to the heart of popular culture in 2025 propelled by a global pop icon. Recently, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The bedazzled bra and thong, feathered armbands and shimmering headpiece were perfect for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.
She has company. This year, glamorous nods have been incorporated by pop stars including Sabrina Carpenter as they zoomed across arena stages in glitter, strategic openings and feathers, spotlighted against overstated sets. A top stylist a fashion expert told a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the 1950s, her performers fluttered giant plumed accessories.
Drawing from Tradition
Modern stars and other successful musicians also draw on historical entertainment forms, including classic theater and dance line references. The outcome are worlds away from the 90s teen pop of revealing tops and baggy pants, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that came before them.
But certain observers are on board with this glamour resurgence. Nancy Hardy, a ex- Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the 00s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “employed as an umbrella term encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly modern pop stars.”
A Highly Sought-After Classic Style
For millennial and millennial stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a style icon gave a nod to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the actress wore a semi-sheer embellished dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, Miley Cyrus paid an significant price to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn at an awards show 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 vintage enthusiasts.
“Showgirls bring about a sense of longing for a historical elegance,” says a historian, an expert at the a Las Vegas university, who studies the legacy of showgirls. “Currently it is seen as a sort of ‘acceptable’ allure because it has been modified. It has got all the glamour, the rhinestones and the glitter but without the bare skin.”
A Than Simply Style: An Icon of Las Vegas
The expert says the showgirl image are key to the identity of Vegas. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was surrounded by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-centric productions, the historian says they are still used as an emblem of the city, appearing at corporate events and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a remaining icon of Vegas glitz and glamour,” the expert says.
An Appeal of Transformation
Nancy Hardy says the transformative effect of a showgirl is part of the allure. This is a notion Swift alludes to in a latest behind-the-scenes film that captures the backstage action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included intense practice sessions, workouts and 149 concerts across 21 countries, each lasting 3.5 hours.
She explains her own showgirl performances as “like completing an endurance race in heels every night”. Her headpiece was 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the steps to the stage from the dressing rooms three floors below in the lower level. I had to leave early for my cue so I could rest before I performed. You are working hard the whole time but crafting this illusion that it’s easy and stunning and magical.”
It could be this is where the true allure of the showgirl really lies. In the chaos of 2025 there is a desire for escapism. What better figure to look to than such icons, who have always personified make-believe, idealism and a world where no one makes a mistake.
