Following a three-decade run on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the showgirls from the spectacle Jubilee! took a final synchronised kick in 2016. The production, known for its ornate costumes created by style icon Bob Mackie, came to an end due to falling audience numbers and disappointed reviewers who labeled it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Today, roughly eight years later, the showgirl persona, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is experiencing a revival.
A Master of Sequins
Dubbed the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made theatrical stage sparkle his trademark look, clothing everyone from Marilyn Monroe to pop royalty. In a recent auction, a “see-through” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, seven times its projected value, while a silver and gold fringed bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more appealing for the new generation of stars who is seeking something other than what they were accustomed to”, he told a media outlet. “New stars are striving for a show-stopping, more dramatic, show-stopping, grand statement.”
The Musical Resurgence
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the heart of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 propelled by a global pop icon. Recently, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The bedazzled bra and thong, feathered armbands and sparkly headpiece were ideal for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift is part of a trend. This year, glamorous nods have been embraced by singers including Sabrina Carpenter as they zoomed across concert platforms in sequins, cut-outs and feathers, spotlighted against camp sets. A top stylist Lorenzo Posocco told Vogue he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the mid-century, her performers fluttered giant plumed accessories.
Drawing from History
These artists and other successful musicians also draw on historical performances, including classic theater and chorus line references. The final look are poles apart from the 90s teen pop of short shirts and cargo pants, and urban dance moves that came before them.
But some critics are enthusiastic with this glamour resurgence. Nancy Hardy, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the early 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word term is being “treated as an umbrella term including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even today's icons.”
A Highly Sought-After Retro Style
For younger and millennial stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a style icon gave a nod to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actor wore a translucent 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 fringed mini dress she had worn previously 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 popular item among vintage enthusiasts.
“The showgirl aesthetic evoke nostalgia for a bygone era of glitz,” says Su Kim Chung, head of special collections at the a Las Vegas university, who documents the legacy of showgirls. “Currently it is viewed as a sort of ‘acceptable’ sexy because it has been adapted. It has got all the sophistication, the crystals and the glitter but without the bare skin.”
More Than Simply Style: An Icon of Vegas
Chung says this figure are key to the iconography of Sin City. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was flanked by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-centric productions, the historian says they are still featured as an logo of the city, showing up at corporate events and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a enduring figure of Vegas spectacle,” Chung says.
The Allure of Escape
Hardy says the complete change of a showgirl persona is part of the attraction. This is a notion the singer alludes to in a recent documentary series that documents the behind-the-scenes action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling preparations, workouts and 149 concerts across dozens of cities, each going on for 3.5 hours.
She recalls her own stage routines as “similar to extreme physical exertion in stilettos every night”. Her feathered headdress tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the steps to the platform from the green rooms three floors below in the basement. I had to start early for my moment so I could recover before I went on stage. You are perspiring the whole time but creating this image that it’s easy and gorgeous and dreamlike.”
Perhaps this is where the fascination of the showgirl really is found. In the complexity of 2025 there is a craving for escapism. Who better to look to than such icons, who have always embodied fantasy, idealism and a realm where nobody makes a mistake.
