🔗 Share this article

Following a 31-year tenure on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the showgirls from the revue Jubilee! gave one last choreographed kick in 2016. The show, known for its ornate costumes designed by style icon Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to declining audience numbers and critical critics who labeled it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.

Now, nearly ten years later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is experiencing a revival.

The Master of Sequins

Known as the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glamour his defining aesthetic, outfitting everyone from screen legends to pop royalty. In a recent auction, a “naked” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, well over its projected value, while a metallic tasseled bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.

“I think it looks more appealing for the emerging artists who is desiring something other than what they grew up with”, he stated in an interview with a media outlet. “Contemporary performers are striving for a glamorous, more dramatic, attention-grabbing, entrance-making statement.”

The Musical Revival

It’s a look that made its way all the way to the epicenter of mainstream fashion in 2025 largely due to a global pop icon. Earlier this year, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The crystal-covered bra and thong, plumed armbands and shimmering headpiece were perfect for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.

Swift has company. This year, glamorous nods have been incorporated by singers including Dua Lipa as they danced across world tours in glitter, revealing designs and plumes, illuminated against camp sets. Her fashion curator her creative director explained to Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the 1950s, Lipa’s dancers wafted giant ostrich feather fans.

Pulling from the Past

Modern stars and other successful musicians also take inspiration from classic performances, including burlesque and chorus line references. The results are vastly different from the late-century Britney Spears era of revealing tops and cargo pants, and urban dance moves that came before them.

But some critics are convinced with this showgirl renaissance. An ex-showgirl, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the 2000s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word term is being “employed as an catch-all phrase including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly modern pop stars.”

The Coveted Vintage Look

For millennial and millennial stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become incredibly sought-after. In 2024, a famous actress honored to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the actor wore a translucent sequined dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, 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, the singer wore a collection of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a favorite among vintage enthusiasts.

“Showgirls evoke fond memories for a historical elegance,” says a historian, an expert at the a Las Vegas university, who studies the history of showgirls. “Currently it is seen as a sort of ‘safe’ appeal because it has been modified. It has got all the sophistication, the sparkles and the glitter but without the bare skin.”

More Than Simply Fashion: An Symbol of the City

The expert says this figure are key to the iconography of Las Vegas. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was flanked by two showgirls. While Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-centric productions, Jung says they are still used as an logo of the city, being present at gatherings and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a lasting figure of Las Vegas glitz and glamour,” she says.

An Appeal of Escape

The former showgirl says the magical transformation of a showgirl is part of the attraction. This is a notion the singer alludes to in a new documentary series that shows the behind-the-scenes action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting rehearsals, gym sessions and numerous concerts across 21 countries, each lasting 3.5 hours.

Hardy explains her own nights in the spotlight as “like running a marathon in stilettos every night”. Her headdress tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to wear 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 cue so I could recover before I made my entrance. You’re perspiring the whole time but creating this image that it’s effortless and gorgeous and dreamlike.”

It could be this is where the true allure of the showgirl fantasy really is found. In the chaos of 2025 there is a longing for escapism. Who better to emulate than such icons, who have always embodied fantasy, perfection and a world where no one misses a mark.