After a 31-year tenure on the Las Vegas strip, the performers from the spectacle Jubilee! took a final choreographed kick in 2016. The production, renowned for its ornate costumes created by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, ended its run due to falling audience numbers and critical commentators who described it as a spectacle “trapped in time”.
Today, nearly ten years later, the showgirl, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is back.
The Sultan of Glitz
Known as the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made dramatic stage sparkle his signature style, dressing everyone from screen legends to Madonna. In a recent auction, a “see-through” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, well over its projected value, while a metallic fringed bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more enticing for the new generation of stars who is seeking something other than what they knew from childhood”, he explained to a media outlet. “Contemporary performers are embracing a glamorous, more theatrical, attention-grabbing, memorable statement.”
A Pop Culture Comeback
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the epicenter of popular culture in 2025 largely due to Taylor Swift. In the past few months, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, feathered armbands and shimmering headpiece were perfect for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift is part of a trend. This year, showgirl inspirations have been embraced by music artists including Miley Cyrus as they whizzed across concert platforms in glitter, revealing designs and ostrich feathers, spotlighted against theatrical sets. Lipa’s stylist a fashion expert told a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the mid-century, the backup dancers wafted giant plumed accessories.
Pulling from Tradition
Lipa, Carpenter and other successful musicians also reference classic entertainment forms, including burlesque and ensemble references. The final look are worlds away from the late-century Britney Spears era of crop tops and cargo pants, and urban dance moves that came before them.
But some critics are convinced with this showgirl renaissance. An ex-showgirl, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the 00s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “used as an catch-all phrase covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently today's icons.”
A Highly Sought-After Vintage Look
For younger and modern stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, Zendaya honored to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the actor wore a translucent sequined dress created by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, a singer 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, Carpenter wore a series of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among vintage enthusiasts.
“This style evoke a sense of longing for a past glamour,” says Su Kim Chung, an expert at the University of Nevada, who studies the legacy of showgirls. “Now it is viewed as a sort of ‘safe’ allure because it has been modified. It has got all the elegance, the rhinestones and the glitter but without the exposure.”
More Than Simply Fashion: An Symbol of the City
Chung says showgirls are key to the iconography of Vegas. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was accompanied by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-based productions, Chung says they are still featured as an emblem of the city, being present at conventions and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a lasting figure of Vegas glamour,” the expert says.
An Appeal of Illusion
The former showgirl says the magical transformation of a showgirl is part of the appeal. It’s something Swift alludes to in a new behind-the-scenes film that captures the behind-the-scenes action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling rehearsals, gym sessions and numerous performances across dozens of cities, each going on for 3.5 hours.
Hardy describes her own stage routines as “comparable to running a marathon 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 dressing rooms three floors below in the lower level. I had to start early for my moment so I could rest before I made my entrance. One is working hard the whole time but creating this image that it’s easy and gorgeous and magical.”
It could be this is where the true allure of the showgirl really resides. In the busyness of 2025 there is a desire for escapism. Is there anyone better to turn to than these performers, who have always embodied fantasy, perfection and a world where no one makes a mistake.
