After a three-decade run on the iconic Vegas strip, the performers from the revue Jubilee! took a final choreographed kick in 2016. The show, famous for its intricate costumes designed by style icon Bob Mackie, ended its run due to falling audience numbers and unimpressed commentators who called it a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Today, roughly eight years later, the showgirl, or at least the showgirl style, is making a comeback.
A Sultan of Sparkle
Referred to as the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made theatrical stage sparkle his defining aesthetic, dressing everyone from screen legends to pop royalty. Earlier this month, a “see-through” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, far exceeding its estimated price, while a shimmering tasseled bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance 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 striving for a theatrical, more dramatic, attention-grabbing, grand statement.”
A Pop Culture Revival
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the centre of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 thanks to a chart-topping superstar. Earlier this year, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The bedazzled bra and thong, feathered armbands and shimmering headpiece were ideal for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.
She isn't alone. This year, showgirl inspirations have been adopted by pop stars including Sabrina Carpenter as they whizzed across world tours in sparkles, cut-outs and plumes, spotlighted against camp sets. A top stylist her creative director explained to Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the 1950s, her performers waved giant ostrich feather fans.
Drawing from Tradition
Modern stars and other hitmakers also reference historical performances, including burlesque and chorus line references. The results are worlds away from the 90s teen pop of revealing tops and utilitarian trousers, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that came before them.
But some critics are enthusiastic with this glamour resurgence. An ex-showgirl, a ex- Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the early 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word term is being “employed as an broad label encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently today's icons.”
A Highly Sought-After Classic Style
For millennial and modern stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a famous actress gave a nod to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the star wore a semi-sheer sequined dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, a singer paid an significant price to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn earlier in the year to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a series of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among vintage enthusiasts.
“The showgirl aesthetic inspire a sense of longing for a historical elegance,” says an archivist, head of special collections at the University of Nevada, who studies the history of showgirls. “Today it is seen as a sort of ‘acceptable’ allure because it has been modified. It has got all the sophistication, the sparkles and the shine but without the exposure.”
More Than Simply Style: An Icon of the City
She says the showgirl image are central to the iconography of Las Vegas. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was accompanied by two showgirls. While Las Vegas currently lacks any traditional showgirl 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 enduring symbol of Vegas spectacle,” Chung says.
An Allure of Transformation
Nancy Hardy says the magical transformation of a showgirl persona is part of the attraction. It’s something Swift references in a new documentary series that documents the backstage action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting practice sessions, workouts and 149 shows across 21 countries, each running for 3.5 hours.
Hardy recalls her own stage routines as “like completing an endurance race in stilettos every night”. Her feathered headdress tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the steps to the stage from the green rooms three floors below in the lower level. I had to head up ahead of time for my moment so I could catch my breath before I made my entrance. You are perspiring the whole time but maintaining this fantasy that it’s easy and stunning and ethereal.”
Maybe this is where the appeal of the showgirl really is found. In the busyness of 2025 there is a longing for a break from reality. What better figure to turn to than showgirls, who have always personified dreams, flawlessness and a world where nobody makes a mistake.
