After a long-running run on the Las Vegas strip, the dancers from the spectacle Jubilee! took a final perfectly timed kick in 2016. The show, famous for its elaborate costumes crafted by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to dwindling audience numbers and disappointed reviewers who called it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Now, almost a decade later, the showgirl persona, or at least the showgirl style, is making a comeback.
A Master of Sparkle
Dubbed the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made over-the-top showgirl glamour his trademark look, dressing everyone from screen legends to Madonna. Earlier this month, a “see-through” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, seven times its estimated price, while a shimmering beaded bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more enticing for the emerging artists who is seeking something other than what they grew up with”, he explained to a media outlet. “Contemporary performers are embracing a theatrical, more spectacular, attention-grabbing, grand statement.”
The Pop Culture Resurgence
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the epicenter of mainstream fashion in 2025 thanks to a chart-topping superstar. In the past few months, 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 sparkly headpiece were ideal for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer is part of a trend. This year, glamorous nods have been adopted by singers including Miley Cyrus as they danced across concert platforms in glitter, revealing designs and feathers, illuminated against camp sets. A top stylist her creative director mentioned in an interview with Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the 1950s, her performers waved giant feathered fans.
Pulling from the Past
These artists and other chart toppers also take inspiration from classic entertainment forms, including burlesque and chorus line references. The outcome are worlds away from the 1990s era teen pop of revealing tops and utilitarian trousers, and urban dance moves that preceded this trend.
But some critics 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 term is being “employed as an broad label covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even modern pop stars.”
The Coveted Retro Look
For millennial and millennial stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a style icon paid tribute to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the star wore a semi-sheer embellished dress made by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, Miley Cyrus paid an undisclosed sum 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 trio of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among vintage enthusiasts.
“The showgirl aesthetic inspire fond memories for a bygone era of glitz,” says Su Kim Chung, an expert at the a Las Vegas university, who documents the legacy of showgirls. “Today it is seen as a sort of ‘acceptable’ sexy because it has been modified. It has got all the glamour, the rhinestones and the shine but without the nudity.”
A Than Simply Fashion: An Icon of Las Vegas
The expert says this figure are key to the identity of Sin City. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was surrounded by two showgirls. While Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-centric productions, Jung says they are still used as an emblem of the city, being present at corporate events and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a remaining symbol of Vegas spectacle,” the expert says.
The Appeal of Illusion
The former showgirl says the magical transformation of a showgirl is part of the attraction. This idea Swift hints at in a recent documentary series that captures the off-camera action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling rehearsals, workouts and countless shows across 21 countries, each going on for 3.5 hours.
She recalls her own showgirl performances as “similar to completing an endurance race in high heels every night”. Her feathered headdress tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the staircase to the stage from the green rooms three floors below in the basement. I had to head up ahead of time for my cue so I could catch my breath before I made my entrance. You are sweating the whole time but maintaining this illusion that it’s easy and stunning and dreamlike.”
It could be this is where the true allure of the showgirl really resides. In the complexity of 2025 there is a longing for escapism. Is there anyone better to look to than these performers, who have always embodied fantasy, flawlessness and a universe where nobody misses a mark.
