🔗 Share this article

After a 31-year run on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the showgirls from the spectacle Jubilee! gave one last choreographed kick in 2016. The production, renowned for its elaborate costumes crafted by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to falling audience numbers and critical commentators who labeled it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.

Today, almost a decade later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl style, is experiencing a revival.

The King of Sequins

Dubbed the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glamour his signature style, clothing everyone from Marilyn Monroe to pop royalty. Earlier this month, a “see-through” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, far exceeding its estimated price, while a shimmering tasseled bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie created 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 looking for something other than what they grew up with”, he explained to a media outlet. “Contemporary performers are striving for a theatrical, more dramatic, attention-grabbing, grand statement.”

A Musical Comeback

It’s a look that glided all the way to the centre of popular culture in 2025 thanks to a global pop icon. Earlier this year, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The crystal-covered bra and thong, plumed armbands and sparkly headpiece were perfect for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.

The singer has company. This year, showgirl references have been embraced by music artists including Dua Lipa as they danced across concert platforms in sparkles, strategic openings and feathers, spotlighted against overstated sets. A top stylist Lorenzo Posocco explained to Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the 50s, Lipa’s dancers waved giant plumed accessories.

Pulling from History

Modern stars and other chart toppers also take inspiration from classic entertainment forms, including burlesque and dance line references. The outcome are poles apart from the late-century teen pop of crop tops and baggy pants, and street-style dance moves that preceded this trend.

But not everyone are enthusiastic with this glamour resurgence. A former performer, a former Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the early 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word term is being “treated as an broad label including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even modern pop stars.”

A Coveted Classic Style

For younger and young adult stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a famous actress paid tribute to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the star wore a see-through sequined dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, another pop star paid an private amount to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn at an awards show to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a collection of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among vintage enthusiasts.

“The showgirl aesthetic bring about fond memories for a past glamour,” says an archivist, an expert at the an academic institution, who documents the history of showgirls. “Today it is considered a sort of ‘toned-down’ sexy because it has been modified. It has got all the elegance, the rhinestones and the glitter but without the nudity.”

A Than Simply Style: An Icon of Las Vegas

The expert says showgirls are central to the iconography of Las Vegas. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was accompanied by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas does not host any traditional showgirl productions, the historian says they are still featured as an emblem of the city, showing up at conventions and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a remaining icon of Vegas spectacle,” Chung says.

An Allure of Transformation

Nancy Hardy says the complete change of a showgirl is part of the appeal. This idea Swift references in a recent behind-the-scenes film that documents the backstage action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting practice sessions, training and countless concerts across dozens of cities, each going on for 3.5 hours.

She explains her own showgirl performances as “like extreme physical exertion in heels every night”. Her headpiece weighed 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the staircase to the performance area from the backstage area three floors below in the underground. I had to start early for my moment so I could rest before I went on stage. You are working hard the whole time but crafting this fantasy that it’s easy and beautiful and ethereal.”

It could be this is where the fascination of the showgirl really lies. In the complexity of 2025 there is a craving for fantasy. What better figure to emulate than such icons, who have always represented dreams, idealism and a world where no one misses a mark.