After a long-running tenure on the iconic Vegas strip, the showgirls from the production Jubilee! took a final perfectly timed kick in 2016. The show, renowned for its ornate costumes designed by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to dwindling audience numbers and disappointed critics who described it as a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Now, nearly ten years later, the showgirl persona, or at least the showgirl style, is back.
The King of Sparkle
Referred to as the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made dramatic stage sparkle his signature style, clothing everyone from screen legends to music superstars. Earlier this month, a “naked” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, far exceeding its initial estimate, while a silver and gold fringed bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more attractive for the younger performer who is desiring something other than what they were accustomed to”, he explained to a newspaper. “Contemporary performers are pushing toward a glamorous, more dramatic, breathtaking, grand statement.”
A Pop Culture Resurgence
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the centre of mainstream fashion 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 new musical project. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, plumed armbands and glittering headpiece were tailor-made for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift has company. This year, showgirl inspirations have been adopted by singers including Sabrina Carpenter as they zoomed across concert platforms in glitter, strategic openings and feathers, highlighted against camp sets. Her fashion curator a fashion expert explained to a style publication he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the 1950s, the backup dancers fluttered giant plumed accessories.
Pulling from the Past
These artists and other hitmakers also draw on classic performances, including classic theater and dance line references. The outcome are vastly different from the 90s pop style of short shirts and baggy pants, and urban dance moves that preceded this trend.
But certain observers are enthusiastic with this glamour resurgence. Nancy Hardy, a former Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the 00s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “treated as an catch-all phrase covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even modern pop stars.”
The Highly Sought-After Vintage Look
For gen Z and young adult stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a style icon honored to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the star wore a semi-sheer beaded dress created by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, a singer paid an private amount to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn earlier in the year to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a trio of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a favorite among fashion collectors.
“This style inspire fond memories for a past glamour,” says an archivist, an expert at the an academic institution, who documents the story of showgirls. “Today it is considered a sort of ‘acceptable’ sexy because it has been updated. It has got all the elegance, the rhinestones and the glitter but without the nudity.”
A Than Just Fashion: An Symbol of Las Vegas
The expert says this figure are integral to the iconography of Sin City. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was flanked by two showgirls. While Las Vegas no longer has any traditional showgirl productions, Chung says they are still featured as an symbol of the city, appearing at gatherings and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a enduring figure of Las Vegas glamour,” the expert says.
An Appeal of Escape
Nancy Hardy says the transformative effect of a showgirl is part of the allure. It’s something Swift references in a new documentary series that shows the behind-the-scenes action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling preparations, workouts and countless performances across dozens of cities, each lasting 3.5 hours.
Hardy describes her own stage routines as “comparable to running a marathon in heels every night”. Her headpiece tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the staircase to the stage from the green rooms three floors below in the basement. I had to leave early for my moment so I could rest before I performed. One is sweating the whole time but creating this fantasy that it’s effortless and gorgeous and magical.”
It could be this is where the true allure of the showgirl really is found. In the busyness of 2025 there is a longing for a break from reality. What better figure to emulate than these performers, who have always embodied dreams, perfection and a realm where nobody misses a mark.
