After a long-running stint on the Las Vegas strip, the performers from the production Jubilee! took a final choreographed kick in 2016. The extravaganza, famous for its intricate costumes crafted by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to falling audience numbers and unimpressed reviewers who labeled it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Currently, almost a decade later, the showgirl, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is making a comeback.
A Master of Sequins
Known as the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made theatrical showgirl glitz his signature style, clothing everyone from Hollywood icons to Madonna. Recently, a “naked” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, seven times its estimated price, while a shimmering tasseled bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more appealing for the emerging artists who is seeking something other than what they knew from childhood”, he told a publication. “Contemporary performers are striving for a theatrical, more dramatic, show-stopping, entrance-making statement.”
A Pop Culture Comeback
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the heart of the cultural zeitgeist 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, feathered armbands and shimmering headpiece were ideal for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
She is part of a trend. This year, showgirl references have been adopted by music artists including Sabrina Carpenter as they zoomed across world tours in sequins, revealing designs and plumes, illuminated against camp sets. Lipa’s stylist Lorenzo Posocco explained to a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the mid-century, Lipa’s dancers fluttered giant plumed accessories.
Drawing from Tradition
These artists and other successful musicians also reference classic performances, including vaudeville and chorus line references. The results are worlds away from the 1990s era teen pop of revealing tops and utilitarian trousers, and urban dance moves that came before them.
But not everyone are on board with this showgirl renaissance. An ex-showgirl, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the early 2000s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “used as an broad label including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly modern pop stars.”
A Highly Sought-After Retro Style
For millennial and millennial stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, Zendaya honored 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 inspired by one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, a singer paid an private amount to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn at an awards show to perform at the Grammys. In September, Sabrina Carpenter wore a collection of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among vintage enthusiasts.
“Showgirls evoke nostalgia for a historical elegance,” says a historian, head of special collections at the University of Nevada, who studies the story of showgirls. “Today it is viewed as a sort of ‘safe’ appeal because it has been modified. It has got all the elegance, the rhinestones and the glitter but without the exposure.”
A Than Simply Style: An Icon of the City
The expert says showgirls are integral to the iconography of Vegas. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was flanked by two showgirls. While Las Vegas currently lacks any traditional showgirl productions, the historian says they are still employed as an symbol of the city, being present at corporate events and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a lasting figure of Vegas glitz and glamour,” Chung says.
The Allure of Escape
Hardy says the transformative effect of a showgirl persona is part of the allure. It’s something Swift hints at in a recent documentary series that captures the backstage action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included intense preparations, training and numerous shows across dozens of cities, each lasting 3.5 hours.
Hardy recalls her own showgirl performances as “similar to completing an endurance race 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 performance area from the backstage area three floors below in the lower level. I had to start early for my entrance so I could recover before I performed. You are perspiring the whole time but maintaining this illusion that it’s simple and beautiful and magical.”
Maybe this is where the fascination of the showgirl really is found. In the complexity of 2025 there is a craving for fantasy. Who better to emulate than such icons, who have always personified fantasy, flawlessness and a universe where no one makes a mistake.
