Following a three-decade stint on the Las Vegas strip, the dancers from the production Jubilee! gave one last synchronised kick in 2016. The production, known for its ornate costumes created by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to dwindling audience numbers and unimpressed critics who called it a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Now, almost a decade later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is experiencing a revival.
The Sultan of Sequins
Known as the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made theatrical showgirl glitz his trademark look, dressing everyone from Marilyn Monroe to music superstars. In a recent auction, a “naked” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, seven times its estimated price, while a metallic fringed bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more enticing for the new generation of stars who is desiring something other than what they grew up with”, he told a media outlet. “Today's artists are striving for a show-stopping, more theatrical, breathtaking, memorable statement.”
A Pop Culture Comeback
It’s a look that glided all the way to the epicenter of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 propelled by a global pop icon. In the past few months, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The bedazzled bra and thong, feathered armbands and shimmering headpiece were perfect for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.
She has company. This year, glamorous nods have been adopted by pop stars including Sabrina Carpenter as they danced across arena stages in sparkles, cut-outs and ostrich feathers, spotlighted against theatrical sets. Her fashion curator Lorenzo Posocco mentioned in an interview with a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the mid-century, her performers fluttered giant ostrich feather fans.
Pulling from the Past
Lipa, Carpenter and other chart toppers also take inspiration from 19th-century entertainment forms, including burlesque and chorus line references. The final look are worlds away from the late-century Britney Spears era of short shirts and utilitarian trousers, and street-style dance moves that preceded this trend.
But not everyone are on board with this showgirl renaissance. Nancy Hardy, a former Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the early 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word term is being “used as an umbrella term encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly Taylor Swift.”
The Coveted Vintage Look
For millennial and millennial stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a famous actress paid tribute to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the star wore a semi-sheer sequined dress made by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, Miley Cyrus paid an private amount to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn at an awards show to perform at the Grammys. In September, Sabrina Carpenter wore a trio of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among fashion collectors.
“This style evoke nostalgia for a past glamour,” says an archivist, an expert at the University of Nevada, who documents the story of showgirls. “Currently it is seen as a sort of ‘acceptable’ appeal because it has been updated. It has got all the glamour, the rhinestones and the sparkle but without the bare skin.”
A Than Just Style: An Symbol of Las Vegas
She says showgirls are key to the identity of Las Vegas. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was surrounded by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas does not host any showgirl-based productions, Jung says they are still used as an logo of the city, showing up at gatherings and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a remaining icon of Vegas spectacle,” she says.
An Appeal of Transformation
Nancy Hardy says the magical transformation of a stage character is part of the allure. This is a notion Swift hints at in a latest docuseries that shows the off-camera action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting preparations, workouts and 149 shows across dozens of cities, each going on for 3.5 hours.
Hardy recalls her own stage routines as “like running a marathon in stilettos every night”. Her feathered headdress was 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the steps to the performance area from the green rooms three floors below in the underground. I had to head up ahead of time for my entrance so I could recover before I made my entrance. One is perspiring the whole time but crafting this illusion that it’s effortless and gorgeous and ethereal.”
Maybe this is where the appeal of the showgirl fantasy really lies. In the chaos of 2025 there is a longing for fantasy. Is there anyone better to look to than showgirls, who have always represented make-believe, flawlessness and a world where no one falters.
