🔗 Share this article

Following a three-decade stint on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the performers from the production Jubilee! took a final perfectly timed kick in 2016. The extravaganza, renowned for its elaborate costumes crafted by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, ended its run due to falling audience numbers and disappointed reviewers who called it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.

Now, almost a decade later, the showgirl, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is experiencing a revival.

A Sultan of Sparkle

Referred to as the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glamour his trademark look, dressing everyone from Hollywood icons to Madonna. Earlier this month, a “barely-there” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, seven times its estimated price, while a shimmering tasseled bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.

“In my view it looks more attractive for the emerging artists who is looking for something other than what they were accustomed to”, he told a newspaper. “Contemporary performers are embracing a glamorous, more theatrical, attention-grabbing, memorable statement.”

A Pop Culture Resurgence

It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the centre of mainstream fashion in 2025 largely due to Taylor Swift. Recently, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The bedazzled bra and thong, plumed armbands and glittering headpiece were tailor-made for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.

The singer has company. This year, showgirl references have been embraced by music artists including Dua Lipa as they zoomed across concert platforms in sequins, cut-outs and feathers, illuminated against theatrical sets. A top stylist Lorenzo Posocco mentioned in an interview with a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the 1950s, the backup dancers fluttered giant feathered fans.

Pulling from Tradition

These artists and other hitmakers also reference classic performances, including vaudeville and ensemble references. The results are worlds away from the 90s Britney Spears era of short shirts and baggy pants, and street-style dance moves that preceded this trend.

But some critics are on board with this glamour resurgence. Nancy Hardy, a former Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the 2000s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word term is being “employed as an umbrella term covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly today's icons.”

A Coveted Vintage Look

For younger and modern stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become incredibly sought-after. In 2024, Zendaya paid tribute to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the actress wore a see-through sequined dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, 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, Sabrina Carpenter wore a trio of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a favorite among vintage enthusiasts.

“The showgirl aesthetic evoke fond memories for a past glamour,” says an archivist, an expert at the University of Nevada, who researches the story of showgirls. “Now it is considered a sort of ‘safe’ appeal because it has been adapted. It has got all the elegance, the rhinestones and the sparkle but without the bare skin.”

A Than Simply Fashion: An Icon of the City

Chung says this figure are central to the iconography of Las Vegas. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was accompanied by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas does not host any showgirl-based productions, Chung says they are still employed as an emblem of the city, appearing at conventions and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a lasting figure of Vegas spectacle,” the expert says.

An Appeal of Transformation

Nancy Hardy says the complete change of a showgirl persona is part of the allure. It’s something the singer alludes to in a latest behind-the-scenes film that documents the behind-the-scenes action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included intense preparations, gym sessions and numerous concerts across dozens of cities, each going on for 3.5 hours.

The performer explains her own showgirl performances as “similar to completing an endurance race in high heels every night”. Her headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the staircase to the performance area from the backstage area three floors below in the lower level. I had to leave early for my moment so I could rest before I performed. You’re working hard the whole time but creating this image that it’s easy and gorgeous and magical.”

Maybe this is where the fascination of the showgirl fantasy really is found. In the complexity of 2025 there is a longing for escapism. Is there anyone better to emulate than these performers, who have always represented dreams, perfection and a world where nobody misses a mark.