After a 31-year stint on the iconic Vegas strip, the performers from the spectacle Jubilee! executed their last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The extravaganza, known for its ornate costumes created by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, came to an end due to dwindling audience numbers and unimpressed critics who described it as a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Currently, nearly ten years later, the showgirl, or at least the showgirl style, is making a comeback.
The Master of Sparkle
Known as the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glamour his defining aesthetic, dressing everyone from Hollywood icons to Madonna. In a recent auction, a “naked” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, well over its projected value, while a silver and gold fringed bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more enticing for the younger performer who is seeking something other than what they were accustomed to”, he explained to a newspaper. “New stars are embracing a show-stopping, more dramatic, show-stopping, memorable statement.”
A Pop Culture Comeback
It’s a look that glided all the way to the centre of popular culture in 2025 propelled by a global pop icon. Recently, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The bedazzled bra and thong, plumed armbands and sparkly headpiece were ideal for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift is part of a trend. This year, showgirl references have been incorporated by music artists including Dua Lipa as they whizzed across world tours in glitter, strategic openings and feathers, illuminated against overstated sets. Her fashion curator Lorenzo Posocco told Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the 50s, Lipa’s dancers wafted giant plumed accessories.
Pulling from the Past
These artists and other chart toppers also reference classic entertainment forms, including vaudeville and dance line references. The final look are worlds away from the 1990s era teen pop of crop 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 term is being “used as an umbrella term covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even today's icons.”
The Coveted Retro Style
For younger and millennial stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become incredibly sought-after. In 2024, a style icon honored to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actress wore a see-through sequined dress created by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, Miley Cyrus 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 trio of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among collectors.
“Showgirls inspire nostalgia for a historical elegance,” says Su Kim Chung, an expert at the an academic institution, who studies the story of showgirls. “Currently it is seen as a sort of ‘acceptable’ appeal because it has been modified. It has got all the elegance, the crystals and the sparkle but without the bare skin.”
A Than Just Fashion: An Icon of the City
Chung says the showgirl image are integral to the iconography of Vegas. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was surrounded by two showgirls. While Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-based productions, Chung says they are still used as an symbol of the city, being present at conventions and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a enduring figure of Las Vegas glitz and glamour,” the expert says.
The Appeal of Escape
Hardy says the magical transformation of a stage character is part of the allure. This idea Taylor 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 countless performances across multiple nations, each lasting 3.5 hours.
Hardy explains her own nights in the spotlight as “similar to completing an endurance race in stilettos every night”. Her headpiece tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the staircase to the stage from the backstage area three floors below in the lower level. I had to leave early for my entrance so I could recover before I went on stage. You’re perspiring the whole time but maintaining this image that it’s effortless and beautiful and magical.”
It could be this is where the true allure of the showgirl fantasy really resides. In the complexity of 2025 there is a desire for a break from reality. Is there anyone better to look to than showgirls, who have always personified fantasy, idealism and a universe where nobody makes a mistake.
