After a long-running run on the Las Vegas strip, the dancers from the revue Jubilee! took a final choreographed kick in 2016. The production, known for its elaborate costumes created by style icon Bob Mackie, ended its run due to declining audience numbers and disappointed reviewers who described it as a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Today, roughly eight years later, showgirls, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is making a comeback.
The Sultan of Sequins
Dubbed the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made theatrical stage sparkle his trademark look, outfitting everyone from screen legends to pop royalty. Recently, a “barely-there” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, seven times its projected value, while a metallic beaded bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more attractive for the younger performer who is looking for something other than what they knew from childhood”, he explained to a newspaper. “Contemporary performers are striving for a show-stopping, more theatrical, attention-grabbing, memorable statement.”
The Musical Revival
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the epicenter of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 propelled by a global pop icon. Recently, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, plumed armbands and glittering headpiece were perfect for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer is part of a trend. This year, glamorous nods have been adopted by music artists including Miley Cyrus as they zoomed across concert platforms in sequins, revealing designs and plumes, illuminated against camp sets. A top stylist a fashion expert mentioned in an interview with a style publication he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the mid-century, the backup dancers fluttered giant plumed accessories.
Drawing from History
Modern stars and other chart toppers also reference classic performances, including classic theater and chorus line references. The outcome are poles apart from the 90s teen pop of revealing tops and baggy pants, and street-style dance moves that preceded this trend.
But not everyone are on board with this glamour resurgence. A former performer, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the 00s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “used as an catch-all phrase encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently Taylor Swift.”
A Coveted Retro Look
For gen Z and millennial stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a famous actress gave a nod to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the actress wore a semi-sheer embellished dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, Miley Cyrus paid an significant price 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 series of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a favorite among vintage enthusiasts.
“Showgirls inspire a sense of longing for a past glamour,” says Su Kim Chung, an expert at the University of Nevada, who studies the story of showgirls. “Today it is seen as a sort of ‘safe’ sexy because it has been updated. It has got all the elegance, the rhinestones and the glitter but without the exposure.”
A Than Simply Fashion: An Icon of Las Vegas
The expert says this figure are central to the iconography of Vegas. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was accompanied by two showgirls. While Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-centric productions, the historian says they are still used as an logo of the city, showing up at gatherings and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a enduring icon of Vegas spectacle,” the expert says.
The Appeal of Illusion
Nancy Hardy says the complete change of a showgirl is part of the appeal. This is a notion Taylor Swift alludes to in a recent behind-the-scenes film that documents the backstage action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included intense practice sessions, training and 149 shows across dozens of cities, each going on for 3.5 hours.
The performer describes her own showgirl performances as “like completing an endurance race in high heels every night”. Her headdress tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the staircase to the platform from the green rooms three floors below in the lower level. I had to leave early for my entrance so I could rest before I performed. One is sweating the whole time but crafting 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 desire for fantasy. Who better to look to than showgirls, who have always represented fantasy, flawlessness and a world where nobody falters.
