Following a three-decade run on the Las Vegas strip, the performers from the spectacle Jubilee! executed their last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The show, renowned for its elaborate costumes crafted by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, came to an end due to falling audience numbers and disappointed reviewers who called it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Today, roughly eight years later, the showgirl, or at least the showgirl style, is back.
The Master of Glitz
Known as the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glamour his trademark look, dressing everyone from Hollywood icons to Madonna. Recently, a “naked” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, far exceeding its initial estimate, while a silver and gold beaded bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more enticing for the emerging artists who is desiring something other than what they were accustomed to”, he explained to a media outlet. “Today's artists are pushing toward a theatrical, more spectacular, show-stopping, entrance-making statement.”
A Mainstream Resurgence
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the heart of mainstream fashion in 2025 largely due to a chart-topping superstar. In the past few months, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The bedazzled bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and shimmering headpiece were perfect for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer isn't alone. This year, showgirl references have been adopted by music artists including Miley Cyrus as they zoomed across world tours in sparkles, strategic openings and ostrich feathers, highlighted against overstated sets. Lipa’s stylist Lorenzo Posocco told Vogue he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the 50s, the backup dancers waved giant ostrich feather fans.
Drawing from History
Lipa, Carpenter and other hitmakers also reference classic entertainment forms, including burlesque and dance line references. The outcome are worlds away from the 90s Britney Spears era of revealing tops and utilitarian trousers, and urban dance moves that came before them.
But certain observers are convinced with this showgirl revival. An ex-showgirl, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the 00s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “treated as an umbrella term covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently Taylor Swift.”
The Coveted Retro Style
For gen Z and millennial stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a style icon paid tribute to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actress wore a see-through sequined dress made by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, another pop star paid an significant price to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn previously to perform at the Grammys. In September, Sabrina Carpenter wore a trio of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among fashion collectors.
“Showgirls evoke a sense of longing for a bygone era of glitz,” says a historian, head of special collections at the a Las Vegas university, who researches the legacy of showgirls. “Now it is seen as a sort of ‘acceptable’ sexy because it has been modified. It has got all the elegance, the crystals and the sparkle but without the exposure.”
More Than Simply Style: An Symbol of Las Vegas
The expert says the showgirl image are integral to the imagery of Sin City. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was flanked by two showgirls. While Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-centric productions, the historian says they are still employed as an logo of the city, being present at corporate events and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a enduring symbol of Vegas glamour,” the expert says.
An Allure of Illusion
Nancy Hardy says the transformative effect of a showgirl persona is part of the allure. This idea Taylor Swift alludes to in a new behind-the-scenes film that documents the off-camera action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included intense practice sessions, workouts and 149 shows across multiple nations, each lasting 3.5 hours.
Hardy describes her own stage routines as “like completing an endurance race in high heels every night”. Her headpiece weighed 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the steps to the platform from the dressing rooms three floors below in the basement. I had to start early for my entrance so I could rest before I went on stage. One is perspiring the whole time but maintaining this fantasy that it’s effortless and gorgeous and ethereal.”
Maybe this is where the fascination of the showgirl fantasy really resides. In the complexity of 2025 there is a longing for fantasy. What better figure to turn to than such icons, who have always embodied dreams, idealism and a universe where nobody makes a mistake.
