Following a three-decade run on the Las Vegas strip, the performers from the spectacle Jubilee! gave one last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The extravaganza, known for its intricate costumes created by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, came to an end due to dwindling audience numbers and unimpressed reviewers who called it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Today, roughly eight years later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl style, is experiencing a revival.
The King of Sequins
Known as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made dramatic stage sparkle his defining aesthetic, clothing everyone from screen legends to Madonna. Earlier this month, a “see-through” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, well over its projected value, while a shimmering fringed 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 emerging artists who is looking for something other than what they knew from childhood”, he told a newspaper. “Today's artists are striving for a theatrical, more theatrical, attention-grabbing, grand statement.”
The Pop Culture Revival
It’s a look that glided all the way to the heart of mainstream fashion in 2025 propelled by a global pop icon. Earlier this year, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The bedazzled bra and thong, feathered 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 incorporated by music artists including Miley Cyrus as they zoomed across world tours in sequins, revealing designs and feathers, spotlighted against theatrical sets. A top stylist a fashion expert mentioned in an interview with a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the mid-century, Lipa’s dancers fluttered giant ostrich feather fans.
Pulling from the Past
Modern stars and other chart toppers also take inspiration from 19th-century entertainment forms, including classic theater and ensemble references. The results are vastly different from the 1990s era Britney Spears era of short shirts and cargo pants, and street-style dance moves that came before them.
But not everyone are on board with this showgirl renaissance. Nancy Hardy, a ex- Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the early 2000s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “used as an umbrella term encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently modern pop stars.”
The Coveted Classic Style
For gen Z and modern stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, Zendaya paid tribute to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the actress wore a semi-sheer sequined dress made by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, Miley Cyrus paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn previously to perform at the Grammys. In September, the singer wore a collection of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among collectors.
“This style bring about fond memories for a past glamour,” says an archivist, a curator at the a Las Vegas university, who studies the legacy of showgirls. “Now it is seen as a sort of ‘toned-down’ appeal because it has been updated. It has got all the elegance, the sparkles and the glitter but without the exposure.”
A Than Just Fashion: An Icon of Vegas
Chung says this figure are integral to the iconography of Vegas. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was surrounded by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-centric productions, the historian says they are still employed as an emblem of the city, appearing at corporate events and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a lasting symbol of Las Vegas glamour,” she says.
The Allure of Transformation
The former showgirl says the magical transformation of a showgirl persona is part of the appeal. This is a notion Taylor Swift hints at in a new docuseries that captures the behind-the-scenes action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included intense practice sessions, gym sessions and countless concerts across 21 countries, each running for 3.5 hours.
She recalls her own showgirl performances as “similar to completing an endurance race in stilettos every night”. Her headdress was 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the steps to the platform from the green rooms three floors below in the basement. I had to start early for my entrance so I could rest before I went on stage. You’re perspiring the whole time but maintaining this fantasy that it’s effortless and gorgeous and dreamlike.”
It could be this is where the appeal of the showgirl fantasy really is found. In the complexity of 2025 there is a desire for a break from reality. What better figure to look to than such icons, who have always personified make-believe, perfection and a world where nobody falters.
