Following a 31-year run on the Las Vegas strip, the performers from the revue Jubilee! gave one last choreographed kick in 2016. The show, famous for its elaborate costumes crafted by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, ended its run due to dwindling audience numbers and critical reviewers who called it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Today, nearly ten years later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl style, is making a comeback.
The King of Sequins
Referred to as the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glamour his trademark look, clothing everyone from Hollywood icons to Madonna. Recently, a “see-through” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, seven times its estimated price, while a metallic fringed bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more appealing for the emerging artists who is desiring something other than what they grew up with”, he explained to a media outlet. “New stars are embracing a glamorous, more theatrical, breathtaking, memorable statement.”
A Pop Culture Comeback
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the centre of popular culture in 2025 thanks to a chart-topping superstar. Earlier this year, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The bedazzled bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and glittering headpiece were ideal for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift isn't alone. This year, glamorous nods have been adopted by pop stars including Sabrina Carpenter as they zoomed across world tours in glitter, cut-outs and plumes, spotlighted against theatrical 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 1950s, her performers waved giant ostrich feather fans.
Pulling from the Past
Lipa, Carpenter and other hitmakers also reference historical performances, including classic theater and chorus line references. The outcome are poles apart from the 90s teen pop of revealing tops and baggy pants, and street-style dance moves that preceded this trend.
But not everyone are convinced with this glamour resurgence. An ex-showgirl, a ex- Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the early 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word term is being “used as an catch-all phrase covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently Taylor Swift.”
The Highly Sought-After Vintage Style
For gen Z and young adult stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, Zendaya paid tribute to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the actress wore a translucent sequined dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, another pop star paid an private amount to buy the Mackie fringed 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.
“The showgirl aesthetic inspire a sense of longing for a bygone era of glitz,” says an archivist, an expert at the University of Nevada, who researches the legacy of showgirls. “Today it is considered a sort of ‘toned-down’ appeal because it has been adapted. It has got all the sophistication, the crystals and the glitter but without the bare skin.”
More Than Simply Style: An Icon of the City
She says this figure are integral to the iconography of Vegas. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was accompanied by two showgirls. While Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-based productions, the historian says they are still employed as an emblem of the city, appearing at corporate events and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a remaining symbol of Vegas glitz and glamour,” Chung says.
An Allure of Illusion
Nancy Hardy says the magical transformation of a showgirl is part of the appeal. It’s something Swift alludes to in a latest docuseries that captures the backstage action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting practice sessions, training and 149 shows across 21 countries, each lasting 3.5 hours.
She explains her own nights in the spotlight as “like extreme physical exertion in high heels every night”. Her headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the steps to the performance area from the dressing rooms three floors below in the underground. I had to start early for my entrance so I could rest before I performed. You’re perspiring the whole time but crafting this fantasy that it’s easy and stunning and magical.”
Perhaps this is where the fascination of the showgirl fantasy really resides. In the chaos of 2025 there is a longing for escapism. What better figure to emulate than such icons, who have always personified dreams, idealism and a world where no one misses a mark.
