Following a long-running tenure on the Las Vegas strip, the dancers from the revue Jubilee! executed their last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The show, famous for its intricate costumes created by style icon Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to dwindling audience numbers and critical commentators who called it a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Today, nearly ten years later, the showgirl persona, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is experiencing a revival.
A Master of Sparkle
Referred to as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glitz his signature style, outfitting everyone from Hollywood icons to pop royalty. In a recent auction, a “barely-there” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, far exceeding its estimated price, while a silver and gold fringed bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more enticing for the new generation of stars who is seeking something other than what they were accustomed to”, he told a newspaper. “Contemporary performers are pushing toward a glamorous, more dramatic, attention-grabbing, entrance-making statement.”
A Mainstream Comeback
It’s a look that glided all the way to the heart of popular culture in 2025 thanks to a global pop icon. In the past few months, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The bedazzled bra and thong, feathered armbands and glittering headpiece were ideal for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift is part of a trend. This year, showgirl inspirations have been incorporated by pop stars including Dua Lipa as they zoomed across world tours in sequins, strategic openings and plumes, illuminated 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 – referencing pictures from the 1950s, the backup dancers wafted giant ostrich feather fans.
Pulling from History
These artists and other chart toppers also take inspiration from 19th-century entertainment forms, including vaudeville and chorus line references. The outcome are worlds away from the 90s pop style of revealing tops and baggy pants, and street-style dance moves that were popular earlier.
But not everyone are enthusiastic with this showgirl revival. Nancy Hardy, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the early 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “used as an umbrella term including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly modern pop stars.”
The Highly Sought-After Retro Style
For millennial and millennial stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a famous actress gave a nod to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actor wore a see-through sequined dress made by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, Miley Cyrus paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn at an awards show to perform at the Grammys. In September, the singer wore a collection of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among vintage enthusiasts.
“The showgirl aesthetic inspire a sense of longing for a past glamour,” says Su Kim Chung, an expert at the an academic institution, who researches the history of showgirls. “Today it is viewed as a sort of ‘safe’ sexy because it has been updated. It has got all the elegance, the crystals and the glitter but without the exposure.”
More Than Just Style: An Symbol of Las Vegas
She says this figure are key to the imagery of Vegas. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was accompanied by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-centric productions, Chung says they are still employed as an symbol of the city, being present at corporate events and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a remaining figure of Las Vegas glitz and glamour,” Chung says.
The Allure of Transformation
Hardy says the magical transformation of a showgirl persona is part of the allure. This is a notion Taylor Swift hints at in a latest documentary series that captures the behind-the-scenes action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included intense rehearsals, gym sessions and 149 shows across multiple nations, each going on for 3.5 hours.
The performer describes her own showgirl performances as “similar to extreme physical exertion in stilettos every night”. Her headpiece was 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the stairs to the platform from the backstage area three floors below in the lower level. I had to head up ahead of time for my cue so I could catch my breath before I performed. One is perspiring the whole time but crafting this fantasy that it’s simple and gorgeous and ethereal.”
Maybe this is where the true allure of the showgirl really resides. In the chaos of 2025 there is a craving for escapism. Who better to emulate than such icons, who have always embodied dreams, idealism and a world where no one falters.
