Following a three-decade run on the iconic Vegas strip, the dancers from the production Jubilee! executed their last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The show, renowned for its intricate costumes crafted by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to dwindling audience numbers and disappointed commentators who called it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Today, almost a decade later, the showgirl, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is making a comeback.
The Master of Sparkle
Dubbed the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made theatrical showgirl glamour his trademark look, dressing everyone from screen legends to Madonna. In a recent auction, a “barely-there” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, seven times its initial estimate, while a shimmering fringed bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more appealing for the emerging artists who is desiring something other than what they knew from childhood”, he told a newspaper. “Today's artists are striving for a glamorous, more theatrical, show-stopping, memorable statement.”
The Mainstream Resurgence
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the heart of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 largely due to a chart-topping superstar. Earlier this year, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The bedazzled bra and thong, feathered armbands and sparkly headpiece were tailor-made for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift has company. This year, showgirl references have been adopted by singers including Sabrina Carpenter as they whizzed across arena stages in glitter, strategic openings and feathers, spotlighted against camp sets. Her fashion curator a fashion expert mentioned in an interview with a style publication he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the 1950s, her performers waved giant plumed accessories.
Pulling from Tradition
Lipa, Carpenter and other successful musicians also take inspiration from 19th-century entertainment forms, including classic theater and ensemble references. The results are poles apart from the 90s Britney Spears era of crop tops and cargo pants, and street-style dance moves that came before them.
But some critics are convinced with this glamour resurgence. An ex-showgirl, a ex- Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the 00s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word term is being “employed as an umbrella term covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even modern pop stars.”
A Coveted Vintage Style
For millennial and young adult stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, Zendaya honored 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 made for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, another pop star paid an significant price to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn at an awards show to perform at the Grammys. In September, Sabrina Carpenter wore a series of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among vintage enthusiasts.
“Showgirls bring about fond memories for a past glamour,” says a historian, a curator at the a Las Vegas university, who documents the legacy of showgirls. “Currently it is considered a sort of ‘toned-down’ allure because it has been modified. It has got all the elegance, the sparkles and the sparkle but without the bare skin.”
A Than Simply Fashion: An Icon of Vegas
She says showgirls are integral to the iconography of Sin City. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was flanked by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-based productions, Jung says they are still featured as an symbol of the city, showing up at corporate events and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a remaining figure of Vegas spectacle,” she says.
The Appeal of Illusion
The former showgirl says the magical transformation of a showgirl is part of the appeal. This is a notion the singer hints at in a latest documentary series that shows the off-camera action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting rehearsals, training and 149 performances across multiple nations, each lasting 3.5 hours.
Hardy recalls her own stage routines as “like completing an endurance race in high heels every night”. Her headpiece weighed 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the steps to the platform from the dressing rooms three floors below in the basement. I had to leave early for my entrance so I could catch my breath before I made my entrance. One is working hard the whole time but crafting this image that it’s simple and gorgeous and magical.”
It could be this is where the true allure of the showgirl really resides. In the chaos of 2025 there is a desire for a break from reality. What better figure to emulate than such icons, who have always personified dreams, flawlessness and a realm where nobody makes a mistake.
