Following a long-running stint on the Las Vegas strip, the performers from the production Jubilee! gave one last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The show, famous for its ornate costumes crafted by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, ended its run due to falling audience numbers and critical critics who labeled it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Now, almost a decade later, the showgirl persona, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is making a comeback.
A Master of Sequins
Dubbed the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made dramatic stage sparkle his defining aesthetic, dressing everyone from Marilyn Monroe to pop royalty. Earlier this month, a “naked” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, far exceeding its projected value, while a silver and gold tasseled bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more appealing for the emerging artists who is looking for something other than what they were accustomed to”, he told a media outlet. “Contemporary performers are pushing toward a show-stopping, more spectacular, attention-grabbing, entrance-making statement.”
The Pop Culture Comeback
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the centre of popular culture in 2025 propelled by a chart-topping superstar. Earlier this year, 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, feathered armbands and sparkly headpiece were tailor-made for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer is part of a trend. This year, glamorous nods have been embraced by pop stars including Sabrina Carpenter as they zoomed across arena stages in sparkles, revealing designs and ostrich feathers, spotlighted against camp sets. Her fashion curator a fashion expert mentioned in an interview with a style publication he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the mid-century, Lipa’s dancers fluttered giant ostrich feather fans.
Drawing from History
Modern stars and other successful musicians also reference classic entertainment forms, including classic theater and chorus line references. The final look are vastly different from the 90s teen pop of short shirts and cargo pants, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that came before them.
But not everyone are enthusiastic with this glamour resurgence. Nancy Hardy, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “treated as an broad label covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even Taylor Swift.”
The Highly Sought-After Vintage Style
For younger and millennial stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a famous actress paid tribute to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actress wore a translucent beaded dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, another pop star paid an private amount to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn at an awards show to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a collection of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among fashion collectors.
“Showgirls inspire a sense of longing for a bygone era of glitz,” says an archivist, head of special collections at the a Las Vegas university, who studies the legacy of showgirls. “Currently it is considered a sort of ‘safe’ appeal because it has been adapted. It has got all the sophistication, the rhinestones and the sparkle but without the bare skin.”
More Than Just Fashion: An Symbol of Las Vegas
The expert says this figure are central to the imagery of Sin City. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was surrounded by two showgirls. While Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-centric productions, Jung says they are still featured as an logo of the city, appearing at corporate events and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a remaining figure of Las Vegas glamour,” she says.
An Appeal of Illusion
The former showgirl says the transformative effect of a showgirl persona is part of the appeal. This is a notion Swift references in a recent documentary series that captures the off-camera action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling practice sessions, training and 149 performances across 21 countries, each running for 3.5 hours.
The performer recalls her own showgirl performances as “similar to extreme physical exertion in high heels every night”. Her headpiece was 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the staircase to the stage from the backstage area three floors below in the lower level. I had to head up ahead of time for my cue so I could rest before I performed. You are sweating the whole time but maintaining this image that it’s simple and beautiful and ethereal.”
Maybe this is where the true allure of the showgirl really resides. In the complexity of 2025 there is a desire for a break from reality. Who better to emulate than such icons, who have always personified fantasy, flawlessness and a world where no one falters.
