After a three-decade run on the Las Vegas strip, the showgirls from the revue Jubilee! executed their last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The production, famous for its ornate costumes designed by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, ended its run due to declining audience numbers and unimpressed commentators who described it as a spectacle “trapped in time”.
Today, nearly ten years later, the showgirl persona, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is back.
A King of Sparkle
Known as the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made over-the-top stage sparkle his defining aesthetic, dressing everyone from screen legends to Madonna. In a recent auction, a “naked” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, seven times its initial estimate, while a metallic tasseled bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more attractive for the emerging artists who is desiring something other than what they were accustomed to”, he told a newspaper. “Contemporary performers are embracing a glamorous, more theatrical, attention-grabbing, entrance-making statement.”
The Musical Comeback
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the centre of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 propelled by Taylor Swift. In the past few months, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The bedazzled bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and shimmering headpiece were perfect for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer is part of a trend. This year, glamorous nods have been embraced by singers including Miley Cyrus as they danced across arena stages in glitter, cut-outs and plumes, illuminated against theatrical sets. A top stylist Lorenzo Posocco explained to a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the 50s, Lipa’s dancers waved giant feathered fans.
Drawing from the Past
These artists and other hitmakers also take inspiration from classic performances, including vaudeville and chorus line references. The outcome are vastly different from the 90s Britney Spears era of crop tops and utilitarian trousers, and urban dance moves that were popular earlier.
But certain observers are convinced with this showgirl revival. Nancy Hardy, a ex- Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the 2000s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word term is being “used as an umbrella term encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even today's icons.”
The Coveted Vintage Style
For younger and young adult stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a famous actress paid tribute to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actress wore a semi-sheer embellished dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, Miley Cyrus paid an private amount 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 popular item among fashion collectors.
“This style inspire nostalgia for a historical elegance,” says a historian, a curator at the an academic institution, who documents the story of showgirls. “Now it is viewed as a sort of ‘toned-down’ appeal because it has been adapted. It has got all the glamour, the crystals and the shine but without the bare skin.”
More Than Simply Fashion: An Symbol of Las Vegas
She says this figure are central to the identity of Vegas. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was surrounded by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas currently lacks any traditional showgirl productions, the historian says they are still featured as an emblem of the city, appearing at gatherings and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a lasting symbol of Vegas glamour,” Chung says.
An Appeal of Transformation
Nancy Hardy says the complete change of a showgirl is part of the appeal. It’s something the singer references in a latest docuseries that shows the off-camera action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included intense rehearsals, training and 149 concerts across dozens of cities, each going on for 3.5 hours.
She describes her own nights in the spotlight as “similar to extreme physical exertion in heels every night”. Her headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the steps to the platform from the green rooms three floors below in the underground. I had to leave early for my moment so I could recover before I made my entrance. One is perspiring the whole time but crafting this illusion that it’s easy and gorgeous and dreamlike.”
It could be this is where the fascination of the showgirl really lies. In the busyness of 2025 there is a desire for fantasy. What better figure to look to than these performers, who have always embodied fantasy, idealism and a realm where no one makes a mistake.
