After a 31-year run on the Las Vegas strip, the performers from the spectacle Jubilee! took a final choreographed kick in 2016. The extravaganza, known for its elaborate costumes designed by style icon Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to dwindling audience numbers and critical critics who labeled it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Now, roughly eight years later, the showgirl, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is experiencing a revival.
A King of Glitz
Dubbed the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made over-the-top showgirl glamour his defining aesthetic, outfitting everyone from screen legends to Madonna. Recently, a “barely-there” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, well over its projected value, while a metallic fringed bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more appealing for the emerging artists who is seeking something other than what they were accustomed to”, he told a media outlet. “Today's artists are pushing toward a glamorous, more theatrical, breathtaking, entrance-making statement.”
A Pop Culture Resurgence
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the heart of mainstream fashion in 2025 propelled by a global pop icon. Earlier this year, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The bedazzled bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and shimmering headpiece were ideal for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift is part of a trend. This year, showgirl inspirations have been incorporated by music artists including Miley Cyrus as they whizzed across concert platforms in glitter, cut-outs and feathers, illuminated against overstated sets. A top stylist Lorenzo Posocco explained to a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the 1950s, her performers waved giant plumed accessories.
Drawing from History
Modern stars and other successful musicians also take inspiration from 19th-century performances, including vaudeville and chorus line references. The outcome are worlds away from the 1990s era Britney Spears era of crop tops and utilitarian trousers, and urban dance moves that preceded this trend.
But some critics are on board with this showgirl renaissance. Nancy Hardy, a ex- Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the 2000s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “treated as an umbrella term including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently Taylor Swift.”
The Highly Sought-After Retro Look
For gen Z and millennial stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a famous actress paid tribute to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the star wore a semi-sheer beaded dress made by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, Miley Cyrus paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn earlier in the year to perform at the Grammys. In September, the singer wore a collection of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among fashion collectors.
“The showgirl aesthetic evoke nostalgia for a past glamour,” says a historian, a curator at the an academic institution, who documents the history of showgirls. “Today it is considered a sort of ‘toned-down’ sexy because it has been adapted. It has got all the elegance, the crystals and the sparkle but without the exposure.”
More Than Simply Fashion: An Symbol of Vegas
She says this figure are central to the identity of Las Vegas. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was accompanied by two showgirls. While Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-centric productions, Jung says they are still employed as an emblem of the city, appearing at gatherings and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a enduring icon of Las Vegas glitz and glamour,” the expert says.
An Allure of Escape
Nancy Hardy says the magical transformation of a showgirl is part of the appeal. It’s something the singer hints at in a recent behind-the-scenes film that captures the behind-the-scenes action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included intense practice sessions, workouts and countless shows across multiple nations, each going on for 3.5 hours.
Hardy describes her own showgirl performances as “similar to extreme physical exertion in stilettos every night”. Her feathered headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the steps to the performance area from the green rooms three floors below in the underground. I had to leave early for my moment so I could recover before I made my entrance. You are working hard the whole time but crafting this fantasy that it’s simple and beautiful and ethereal.”
It could be this is where the appeal of the showgirl really lies. In the busyness of 2025 there is a desire for escapism. What better figure to look to than showgirls, who have always represented make-believe, flawlessness and a universe where no one misses a mark.
