Following a long-running stint on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the dancers from the revue Jubilee! executed their last synchronised kick in 2016. The show, renowned for its ornate costumes crafted by style icon Bob Mackie, came to an end due to declining audience numbers and disappointed reviewers who called it a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Currently, almost a decade later, the showgirl, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is making a comeback.
The Master of Glitz
Known as the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made over-the-top showgirl glamour his trademark look, dressing everyone from Marilyn Monroe to Madonna. Earlier this month, a “see-through” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, seven times its initial estimate, while a silver and gold beaded bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more attractive for the emerging artists who is desiring something other than what they were accustomed to”, he told a newspaper. “New stars are striving for a theatrical, more spectacular, attention-grabbing, memorable statement.”
A Pop Culture Resurgence
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the epicenter of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 thanks to Taylor Swift. In the past few months, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and glittering headpiece were ideal for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift is part of a trend. This year, glamorous nods have been embraced by music artists including Miley Cyrus as they danced across world tours in glitter, cut-outs and feathers, illuminated against overstated sets. Her fashion curator Lorenzo Posocco explained to a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the 50s, the backup dancers waved giant plumed accessories.
Pulling from the Past
These artists and other chart toppers also take inspiration from historical performances, including vaudeville and ensemble references. The outcome are worlds away from the 90s pop style of short shirts and utilitarian trousers, and urban dance moves that were popular earlier.
But not everyone are enthusiastic with this showgirl renaissance. An ex-showgirl, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the early 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word term is being “treated as an catch-all phrase covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly today's icons.”
A Coveted Classic Look
For millennial and modern stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a famous actress honored to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the star wore a see-through embellished dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, 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, Carpenter wore a collection of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among collectors.
“This style bring about nostalgia for a past glamour,” says a historian, a curator at the a Las Vegas university, who documents the history of showgirls. “Currently it is viewed as a sort of ‘safe’ allure because it has been modified. It has got all the sophistication, the rhinestones and the glitter but without the exposure.”
A Than Just Style: An Symbol of the City
She says showgirls are central to the iconography of Vegas. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was flanked by two showgirls. While Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-centric productions, the historian says they are still employed as an logo of the city, being present at conventions and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a enduring symbol of Las Vegas glitz and glamour,” the expert says.
An Allure of Illusion
Nancy Hardy says the transformative effect of a showgirl persona is part of the appeal. This is a notion the singer hints at in a recent behind-the-scenes film that captures the off-camera action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included intense rehearsals, workouts and 149 concerts across dozens of cities, each going on for 3.5 hours.
She recalls her own stage routines as “comparable to running a marathon in high heels every night”. Her feathered headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the stairs to the stage from the green rooms three floors below in the lower level. I had to leave early for my entrance so I could catch my breath before I performed. You’re working hard the whole time but creating this image that it’s simple and stunning and dreamlike.”
It could be this is where the fascination of the showgirl fantasy really is found. In the chaos of 2025 there is a longing for fantasy. What better figure to turn to than showgirls, who have always personified make-believe, flawlessness and a universe where no one misses a mark.
