After a long-running stint on the Las Vegas strip, the performers from the spectacle Jubilee! gave one last choreographed kick in 2016. The show, famous for its elaborate costumes created by style icon Bob Mackie, ended its run due to declining audience numbers and unimpressed critics who labeled it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Today, roughly eight years later, the showgirl persona, or at least the showgirl style, is experiencing a revival.
A King of Glitz
Dubbed the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made dramatic stage sparkle his defining aesthetic, outfitting everyone from Marilyn Monroe to music superstars. Earlier this month, a “see-through” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, far exceeding its projected value, while a metallic tasseled bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more enticing for the new generation of stars who is desiring something other than what they were accustomed to”, he explained to a publication. “New stars are embracing a theatrical, more spectacular, attention-grabbing, entrance-making statement.”
A Pop Culture Resurgence
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the epicenter of mainstream fashion in 2025 propelled by a global pop icon. Earlier this year, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The bedazzled bra and thong, plumed armbands and glittering headpiece were perfect for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
She isn't alone. This year, glamorous nods have been adopted by singers including Miley Cyrus as they danced across arena stages in glitter, strategic openings and ostrich feathers, spotlighted against overstated sets. Her fashion curator her creative director told a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the mid-century, her performers waved giant feathered fans.
Pulling from the Past
Modern stars and other successful musicians also draw on historical performances, including burlesque and chorus line references. The results are poles apart from the 90s Britney Spears era of short shirts and utilitarian trousers, and street-style dance moves that preceded this trend.
But not everyone are convinced with this glamour resurgence. Nancy Hardy, a ex- Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the 00s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word term is being “employed as an catch-all phrase encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly Taylor Swift.”
A Coveted Classic Style
For millennial and modern stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a famous actress honored to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actor wore a semi-sheer embellished dress made by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, another pop star paid an significant price to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn at an awards show to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a series of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among collectors.
“The showgirl aesthetic inspire a sense of longing for a past glamour,” says an archivist, head of special collections at the an academic institution, who studies the legacy of showgirls. “Today it is viewed as a sort of ‘acceptable’ appeal because it has been adapted. It has got all the glamour, the sparkles and the shine but without the bare skin.”
A Than Just Style: An Icon of Las Vegas
Chung says the showgirl image are central to the imagery of Vegas. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was flanked by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas no longer has any traditional showgirl productions, Chung says they are still featured as an logo of the city, appearing at corporate events and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a enduring symbol of Las Vegas glitz and glamour,” she says.
An Appeal of Illusion
The former showgirl says the magical transformation of a showgirl persona is part of the attraction. It’s something Taylor Swift hints at in a new documentary series that shows the off-camera action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting rehearsals, gym sessions and numerous performances across dozens of cities, each going on for 3.5 hours.
Hardy recalls her own nights in the spotlight as “like running a marathon in high heels every night”. Her feathered headdress tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the steps to the platform from the backstage area three floors below in the basement. I had to start early for my cue so I could rest before I went on stage. You’re perspiring the whole time but creating this fantasy that it’s effortless and beautiful and magical.”
Perhaps this is where the appeal of the showgirl fantasy really resides. In the complexity of 2025 there is a craving for a break from reality. Is there anyone better to look to than showgirls, who have always embodied make-believe, flawlessness and a universe where no one falters.
