After a three-decade run on the Las Vegas strip, the showgirls from the revue Jubilee! took a final perfectly timed kick in 2016. The show, renowned for its elaborate costumes created by style icon Bob Mackie, came to an end due to dwindling audience numbers and critical critics who labeled it a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Currently, roughly eight years later, the showgirl, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is making a comeback.
The Sultan of Sparkle
Dubbed the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made theatrical stage sparkle his defining aesthetic, dressing everyone from Marilyn Monroe to music superstars. Earlier this month, a “barely-there” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, well over its projected value, while a shimmering beaded bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more appealing for the emerging artists who is looking for something other than what they knew from childhood”, he stated in an interview with a media outlet. “New stars are striving for a glamorous, more spectacular, show-stopping, entrance-making statement.”
The Mainstream Revival
It’s a look that glided all the way to the epicenter of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 thanks to a chart-topping superstar. Recently, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and sparkly headpiece were ideal for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift has company. This year, showgirl references have been embraced by singers including Sabrina Carpenter as they zoomed across arena stages in sparkles, cut-outs and feathers, illuminated against theatrical sets. A top stylist Lorenzo Posocco mentioned in an interview with a style publication he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the mid-century, the backup dancers wafted giant plumed accessories.
Drawing from Tradition
These artists and other chart toppers also take inspiration from classic performances, including vaudeville and chorus line references. The results are poles apart from the late-century pop style of short shirts and cargo pants, and street-style dance moves that were popular earlier.
But certain observers are enthusiastic with this showgirl renaissance. An ex-showgirl, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “treated as an broad label encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently Taylor Swift.”
The Coveted Retro Look
For gen Z and modern stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, Zendaya honored to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the star wore a semi-sheer embellished dress created by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, a singer paid an significant price to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn at an awards show to perform at the Grammys. In September, Sabrina Carpenter wore a collection of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among collectors.
“The showgirl aesthetic evoke fond memories for a past glamour,” says an archivist, head of special collections at the a Las Vegas university, who documents the legacy of showgirls. “Today it is viewed as a sort of ‘acceptable’ appeal because it has been updated. It has got all the glamour, the crystals and the glitter but without the bare skin.”
A Than Just Fashion: An Icon of the City
The expert says the showgirl image are integral to the imagery of Vegas. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was surrounded by two showgirls. While Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-based productions, Jung says they are still used as an emblem of the city, showing up at conventions and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a enduring icon of Las Vegas glamour,” the expert says.
An Allure of Escape
Nancy Hardy says the complete change of a showgirl persona is part of the appeal. This is a notion the singer hints at in a new behind-the-scenes film that captures the backstage action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting practice sessions, gym sessions and countless performances across dozens of cities, each going on for 3.5 hours.
She explains her own nights in the spotlight as “like running a marathon in stilettos every night”. Her feathered headdress was 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the staircase to the platform from the backstage area three floors below in the underground. I had to start early for my entrance so I could catch my breath before I went on stage. You are perspiring the whole time but crafting this fantasy that it’s easy and gorgeous and magical.”
Maybe this is where the appeal of the showgirl really lies. In the chaos of 2025 there is a longing for a break from reality. Is there anyone better to look to than such icons, who have always embodied make-believe, perfection and a universe where nobody falters.
