Following a long-running stint on the iconic Vegas strip, the dancers from the production Jubilee! executed their last synchronised kick in 2016. The extravaganza, famous for its elaborate costumes designed by style icon Bob Mackie, ended its run due to falling audience numbers and unimpressed critics who called it a spectacle “trapped in time”.
Currently, roughly eight years later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is back.
A King of Glitz
Dubbed the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made over-the-top showgirl glamour his defining aesthetic, clothing everyone from screen legends to pop royalty. Earlier this month, a “see-through” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, far exceeding its initial estimate, while a shimmering beaded bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more enticing for the emerging artists who is looking for something other than what they grew up with”, he told a newspaper. “New stars are pushing toward a show-stopping, more spectacular, attention-grabbing, memorable statement.”
The Pop Culture Resurgence
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the centre of mainstream fashion in 2025 largely due to a global pop icon. Recently, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and shimmering headpiece were tailor-made for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer isn't alone. This year, showgirl references have been adopted by pop stars including Dua Lipa as they whizzed across concert platforms in sparkles, strategic openings and ostrich feathers, spotlighted against theatrical sets. A top stylist her creative director told Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the 1950s, the backup dancers fluttered giant feathered fans.
Drawing from History
Lipa, Carpenter and other hitmakers also reference historical performances, including burlesque and dance line references. The results are poles apart from the late-century Britney Spears era of revealing tops and utilitarian trousers, and urban dance moves that were popular earlier.
But some critics are convinced with this showgirl revival. A former performer, a former Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the 00s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “employed as an broad label covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently Taylor Swift.”
The Coveted Classic Look
For millennial and millennial stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, Zendaya paid tribute to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the actor wore a see-through embellished dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, a singer 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, Carpenter wore a trio of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among vintage enthusiasts.
“The showgirl aesthetic inspire nostalgia for a past glamour,” says a historian, an expert at the University of Nevada, who studies the history of showgirls. “Now it is viewed as a sort of ‘acceptable’ allure because it has been updated. It has got all the glamour, the sparkles and the sparkle but without the exposure.”
More Than Just Style: An Symbol of the City
Chung says this figure are integral to the imagery of Vegas. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was flanked by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas does not host any showgirl-based productions, the historian says they are still used as an emblem of the city, appearing at gatherings and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a remaining symbol of Las Vegas glamour,” she says.
An Allure of Escape
Hardy says the magical transformation of a showgirl is part of the appeal. This is a notion Swift references in a recent documentary series that documents the behind-the-scenes action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling practice sessions, gym sessions and 149 performances across 21 countries, each lasting 3.5 hours.
Hardy describes her own stage routines as “similar to completing an endurance race in high heels every night”. Her headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the stairs to the platform from the backstage area three floors below in the underground. I had to start early for my entrance so I could rest before I performed. You are working hard the whole time but crafting this fantasy that it’s effortless and beautiful and ethereal.”
It could be this is where the true allure of the showgirl fantasy really is found. In the complexity of 2025 there is a craving for fantasy. What better figure to look to than these performers, who have always personified fantasy, idealism and a universe where no one misses a mark.
