Following a long-running run on the Las Vegas strip, the showgirls from the revue Jubilee! executed their last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The extravaganza, renowned for its ornate costumes created by style icon Bob Mackie, ended its run due to falling audience numbers and critical reviewers who described it as a spectacle “trapped in time”.
Currently, roughly eight years later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl style, is making a comeback.
The King of Sparkle
Known as the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made theatrical showgirl glitz his trademark look, outfitting everyone from Marilyn Monroe to Madonna. In a recent auction, a “barely-there” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, seven times its projected value, while a silver and gold beaded bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more enticing for the emerging artists who is looking for something other than what they grew up with”, he told a publication. “Contemporary performers are embracing a theatrical, more dramatic, show-stopping, memorable statement.”
The Musical Revival
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the epicenter of popular culture in 2025 thanks to Taylor Swift. Recently, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The bedazzled bra and thong, plumed armbands and glittering headpiece were ideal for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
She isn't alone. This year, showgirl inspirations have been embraced by singers including Sabrina Carpenter as they zoomed across world tours in sparkles, revealing designs and ostrich feathers, illuminated against overstated sets. Lipa’s stylist her creative director mentioned in an interview with a style publication he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the mid-century, the backup dancers wafted giant plumed accessories.
Drawing from Tradition
Lipa, Carpenter and other hitmakers also draw on classic entertainment forms, including burlesque and dance line references. The outcome are vastly different from the late-century teen pop of revealing tops and baggy pants, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that came before them.
But certain observers are enthusiastic with this showgirl renaissance. A former performer, a former Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the 2000s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “treated as an umbrella term covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly modern pop stars.”
A Coveted Classic Style
For millennial and modern stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a style icon honored to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actress wore a semi-sheer beaded dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, a singer paid an significant price to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn previously 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 popular item among collectors.
“Showgirls evoke a sense of longing for a past glamour,” says Su Kim Chung, a curator at the an academic institution, who documents the story of showgirls. “Now it is viewed as a sort of ‘safe’ sexy because it has been updated. It has got all the sophistication, the crystals and the sparkle but without the exposure.”
More Than Simply Style: An Symbol of the City
She says this figure are key to the imagery of Vegas. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was surrounded by two showgirls. While Las Vegas does not host any showgirl-based productions, Chung says they are still used as an logo of the city, being present at conventions and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a remaining figure of Las Vegas glitz and glamour,” she says.
An Appeal of Escape
Nancy Hardy says the complete change of a showgirl is part of the allure. It’s something Taylor Swift references in a new behind-the-scenes film that captures the off-camera action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling preparations, gym sessions and countless concerts across multiple nations, each lasting 3.5 hours.
The performer recalls her own stage routines as “similar to running a marathon in heels every night”. Her headdress was 34lbs. “I had to carry 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 cue so I could catch my breath before I went on stage. You are working hard the whole time but creating this illusion that it’s simple and beautiful and dreamlike.”
Perhaps this is where the true allure of the showgirl fantasy really lies. In the complexity of 2025 there is a craving for fantasy. What better figure to look to than showgirls, who have always represented make-believe, perfection and a realm where no one makes a mistake.
