Following a long-running stint on the Las Vegas strip, the dancers from the revue Jubilee! gave one last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The show, famous for its elaborate costumes crafted by style icon Bob Mackie, came to an end due to falling audience numbers and unimpressed reviewers who called it a spectacle “trapped in time”.
Currently, roughly eight years later, showgirls, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is experiencing a revival.
A King of Glitz
Referred to as the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made dramatic stage sparkle his signature style, dressing everyone from Marilyn Monroe to music superstars. In a recent auction, a “barely-there” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, well over its projected value, while a silver and gold beaded bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie created 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 were accustomed to”, he told a newspaper. “Contemporary performers are striving for a glamorous, more spectacular, show-stopping, grand statement.”
A Musical Resurgence
It’s a look that glided all the way to the epicenter of popular culture in 2025 propelled by Taylor Swift. In the past few months, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The crystal-covered bra and thong, plumed armbands and glittering headpiece were perfect for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer has company. This year, glamorous nods have been adopted by music artists including Sabrina Carpenter as they danced across concert platforms in glitter, strategic openings and plumes, spotlighted against camp sets. Her fashion curator Lorenzo Posocco explained to Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the 50s, her performers waved giant feathered fans.
Pulling from Tradition
These artists and other chart toppers also take inspiration from 19th-century entertainment forms, including classic theater and chorus line references. The outcome are worlds away from the 1990s era Britney Spears era of crop tops and utilitarian trousers, and urban dance moves that preceded this trend.
But some critics are convinced with this showgirl revival. Nancy Hardy, a ex- Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the 2000s says the trend is “confusing”. 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 even today's icons.”
A Highly Sought-After Vintage Style
For gen Z and millennial stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become incredibly sought-after. In 2024, a famous actress honored to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the actor wore a translucent beaded dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, Miley Cyrus paid an significant price to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn earlier in the year 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 favorite among fashion collectors.
“This style inspire a sense of longing for a past glamour,” says an archivist, a curator at the an academic institution, who studies the story of showgirls. “Today it is considered a sort of ‘safe’ appeal because it has been updated. It has got all the glamour, the sparkles and the sparkle but without the exposure.”
A Than Just Fashion: An Icon of the City
She says the showgirl image are key to the iconography of Las Vegas. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was flanked 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 remaining icon of Vegas glamour,” the expert says.
The Allure of Illusion
Hardy says the transformative effect of a showgirl persona is part of the attraction. It’s something Taylor Swift references in a latest behind-the-scenes film that shows the backstage action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting rehearsals, gym sessions and countless concerts across dozens of cities, each going on for 3.5 hours.
She recalls her own showgirl performances as “comparable to extreme physical exertion in heels every night”. Her headpiece was 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the staircase to the platform from the backstage area three floors below in the basement. I had to head up ahead of time for my entrance so I could rest before I performed. One is sweating the whole time but crafting this fantasy that it’s effortless and stunning and ethereal.”
Maybe this is where the appeal of the showgirl really is found. In the chaos of 2025 there is a craving for escapism. Is there anyone better to look to than showgirls, who have always personified make-believe, flawlessness and a world where nobody misses a mark.
