🔗 Share this article

After a three-decade tenure on the Las Vegas strip, the dancers from the spectacle Jubilee! took a final synchronised kick in 2016. The show, renowned for its intricate costumes designed by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to falling audience numbers and critical critics who described it as a spectacle “trapped in time”.

Today, roughly eight years later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is making a comeback.

The Master of Sparkle

Dubbed the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made dramatic stage sparkle his signature style, outfitting everyone from Marilyn Monroe to Madonna. Earlier this month, a “barely-there” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, well over its initial estimate, while a silver and gold beaded bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.

“I think it looks more enticing for the emerging artists who is desiring something other than what they grew up with”, he told a media outlet. “Contemporary performers are striving for a theatrical, more dramatic, attention-grabbing, entrance-making statement.”

A Pop Culture Resurgence

It’s a look that made its way all the way to the epicenter of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 propelled by Taylor Swift. Earlier this year, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The bedazzled bra and thong, feathered armbands and shimmering headpiece were perfect for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.

The singer is part of a trend. This year, showgirl references have been embraced by music artists including Dua Lipa as they whizzed across world tours in glitter, strategic openings and ostrich feathers, illuminated against camp sets. Her fashion curator a fashion expert told Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the 1950s, Lipa’s dancers fluttered giant ostrich feather fans.

Drawing from Tradition

These artists and other hitmakers also take inspiration from classic performances, including burlesque and ensemble references. The final look are poles apart from the 90s teen pop of revealing tops and cargo pants, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that came before them.

But some critics are enthusiastic with this showgirl revival. Nancy Hardy, a ex- Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the early 2000s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “used as an catch-all phrase including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly Taylor Swift.”

A Highly Sought-After Vintage Look

For millennial and millennial stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a famous actress honored to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the star wore a translucent embellished dress made by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, another pop star paid an private amount to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn earlier in the year 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 favorite among fashion collectors.

“This style bring about a sense of longing for a past glamour,” says Su Kim Chung, head of special collections at the a Las Vegas university, who documents the legacy of showgirls. “Now it is viewed as a sort of ‘acceptable’ sexy because it has been updated. It has got all the sophistication, the crystals and the glitter but without the exposure.”

A Than Simply Style: An Symbol of Las Vegas

She says this figure are integral to the identity of Sin City. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was accompanied by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-centric productions, Chung says they are still used as an logo of the city, appearing at gatherings and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a remaining figure of Vegas glitz and glamour,” Chung says.

An Allure of Escape

Nancy Hardy says the magical transformation of a showgirl is part of the attraction. It’s something the singer alludes to in a new behind-the-scenes film that documents the backstage action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting preparations, training and 149 performances across 21 countries, each going on for 3.5 hours.

The performer describes her own nights in the spotlight as “similar to running a marathon in high heels every night”. Her headdress tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the steps to the stage from the green rooms three floors below in the lower level. I had to start early for my cue so I could rest before I went on stage. You’re perspiring the whole time but maintaining this image that it’s simple and gorgeous and dreamlike.”

Maybe this is where the fascination of the showgirl fantasy really lies. In the complexity of 2025 there is a desire for escapism. Is there anyone better to look to than such icons, who have always personified dreams, flawlessness and a world where nobody falters.