After a three-decade tenure on the Las Vegas strip, the showgirls from the production Jubilee! took a final perfectly timed kick in 2016. The extravaganza, known for its ornate costumes created by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to dwindling audience numbers and disappointed critics who called it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Today, nearly ten years later, the showgirl persona, or at least the showgirl style, is back.
The Master of Sparkle
Known as the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made dramatic stage sparkle his defining aesthetic, outfitting everyone from Marilyn Monroe to music superstars. Recently, a “see-through” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, well over its projected value, while a metallic beaded bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more enticing for the emerging artists who is looking for something other than what they grew up with”, he explained to a publication. “New stars are pushing toward a theatrical, more theatrical, attention-grabbing, grand statement.”
A Pop Culture Resurgence
It’s a look that glided all the way to the epicenter of popular culture in 2025 largely due to Taylor Swift. In the past few months, the music phenomenon 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 glittering headpiece were ideal for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer is part of a trend. This year, glamorous nods have been embraced by singers including Sabrina Carpenter as they whizzed across concert platforms in glitter, revealing designs and feathers, highlighted against overstated sets. Her fashion curator a fashion expert explained to Vogue he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the mid-century, her performers waved giant ostrich feather fans.
Drawing from the Past
These artists and other chart toppers also take inspiration from classic entertainment forms, including classic theater and ensemble references. The results are poles apart from the late-century Britney Spears era of crop tops and baggy pants, and urban dance moves that preceded this trend.
But some critics are on board with this glamour resurgence. Nancy Hardy, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the 00s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “used as an catch-all phrase including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even modern pop stars.”
A Coveted Retro Look
For younger and modern stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become incredibly sought-after. In 2024, a style icon honored to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the actor wore a semi-sheer sequined dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, a singer paid an private amount 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 series of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among fashion collectors.
“This style inspire a sense of longing for a historical elegance,” says an archivist, an expert at the University of Nevada, who studies the history of showgirls. “Now it is viewed as a sort of ‘toned-down’ sexy because it has been adapted. It has got all the glamour, the rhinestones and the shine but without the exposure.”
More Than Simply Fashion: An Symbol of Vegas
The expert says this figure are key to the iconography of Sin City. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was surrounded by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-centric productions, Chung says they are still used as an logo of the city, appearing at conventions and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a lasting symbol of Vegas glitz and glamour,” Chung says.
An Appeal of Illusion
Hardy says the transformative effect of a showgirl persona is part of the appeal. It’s something the singer hints at in a new documentary series that shows the backstage action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting rehearsals, training and numerous shows across 21 countries, each lasting 3.5 hours.
Hardy explains her own nights in the spotlight as “similar to completing an endurance race in high heels every night”. Her feathered headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the steps to the stage from the green rooms three floors below in the basement. I had to start early for my cue so I could rest before I performed. You are sweating the whole time but maintaining this image that it’s easy and stunning and dreamlike.”
It could be this is where the appeal of the showgirl really resides. In the chaos of 2025 there is a longing for fantasy. Is there anyone better to turn to than showgirls, who have always personified make-believe, flawlessness and a universe where nobody falters.
