Following a three-decade stint on the iconic Vegas strip, the dancers from the revue Jubilee! gave one last choreographed kick in 2016. The show, known for its elaborate costumes crafted by style icon Bob Mackie, ended its run due to falling audience numbers and unimpressed commentators who labeled it a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Now, roughly eight years later, the showgirl persona, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is experiencing a revival.
The Master of Glitz
Dubbed the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glamour his defining aesthetic, dressing everyone from Hollywood icons to pop royalty. Recently, a “see-through” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, well over its initial estimate, while a silver and gold beaded bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more enticing for the younger performer who is looking for something other than what they grew up with”, he told a newspaper. “Contemporary performers are embracing a theatrical, more theatrical, attention-grabbing, grand statement.”
A Pop Culture Comeback
It’s a look that glided all the way to the epicenter of popular culture in 2025 largely due to a global pop icon. Recently, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The bedazzled bra and thong, feathered armbands and glittering headpiece were perfect for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift has company. This year, showgirl inspirations have been embraced by pop stars including Sabrina Carpenter as they whizzed across world tours in sequins, cut-outs and plumes, highlighted against overstated sets. Lipa’s stylist a fashion expert told a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the 50s, Lipa’s dancers fluttered giant ostrich feather fans.
Pulling from Tradition
Lipa, Carpenter and other chart toppers also draw on classic performances, including classic theater and dance line references. The outcome are vastly different from the 1990s era pop style of crop tops and baggy pants, and urban dance moves that were popular earlier.
But not everyone are on board with this showgirl revival. A former performer, a former Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the 2000s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “employed as an catch-all phrase including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly modern pop stars.”
A Coveted Vintage Look
For younger and millennial stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become incredibly sought-after. In 2024, a famous actress honored to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the star wore a semi-sheer beaded dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, a singer paid an significant price 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 favorite among fashion collectors.
“Showgirls evoke fond memories for a bygone era of glitz,” says an archivist, head of special collections at the an academic institution, who documents the story of showgirls. “Now it is viewed as a sort of ‘toned-down’ allure because it has been adapted. It has got all the elegance, the rhinestones and the sparkle but without the bare skin.”
A Than Just Fashion: An Symbol of Vegas
She says this figure are key to the iconography of Las Vegas. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was flanked by two showgirls. While Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-based productions, the historian says they are still featured as an emblem of the city, appearing at corporate events and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a enduring icon of Vegas glitz and glamour,” the expert says.
An Allure of Escape
Hardy says the magical transformation of a showgirl persona is part of the allure. This idea Swift hints at in a recent documentary series that captures the behind-the-scenes action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting rehearsals, training and numerous performances across multiple nations, each running for 3.5 hours.
She describes her own nights in the spotlight as “similar to extreme physical exertion in stilettos every night”. Her headpiece was 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the staircase to the performance area from the green rooms three floors below in the lower level. I had to start early for my cue so I could catch my breath before I performed. You are perspiring the whole time but creating this fantasy that it’s simple and beautiful and magical.”
It could be this is where the true allure of the showgirl fantasy really resides. In the busyness of 2025 there is a longing for a break from reality. Is there anyone better to look to than these performers, who have always personified fantasy, perfection and a world where no one misses a mark.
