Following a 31-year run on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the performers from the revue Jubilee! took a final synchronised kick in 2016. The extravaganza, known for its elaborate costumes created by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, ended its run due to declining audience numbers and disappointed critics who called it a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Today, roughly eight years later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl style, is experiencing a revival.
A Sultan of Sparkle
Dubbed the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made theatrical stage sparkle his trademark look, outfitting everyone from Hollywood icons to music superstars. In a recent auction, a “see-through” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, far exceeding its projected value, while a silver and gold fringed bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more attractive for the younger performer who is looking for something other than what they grew up with”, he stated in an interview with a newspaper. “Today's artists are embracing a glamorous, more dramatic, attention-grabbing, entrance-making statement.”
The Pop Culture Revival
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the centre of the cultural zeitgeist 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 12th studio album. The bedazzled bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and shimmering headpiece were perfect for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift has company. This year, showgirl inspirations have been embraced by music artists including Sabrina Carpenter as they whizzed across arena stages in glitter, strategic openings and ostrich feathers, spotlighted against camp sets. A top stylist a fashion expert told a style publication he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the mid-century, the backup dancers fluttered giant ostrich feather fans.
Pulling from History
Lipa, Carpenter and other chart toppers also reference historical performances, including classic theater and dance line references. The results are vastly different from the late-century pop style of short shirts and baggy pants, and urban dance moves that were popular earlier.
But not everyone are convinced with this showgirl revival. An ex-showgirl, a ex- Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the 00s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word term is being “used as an umbrella term covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently modern pop stars.”
The Coveted Classic Look
For millennial and millennial stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a style icon honored to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the actor wore a see-through beaded dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, a singer paid an significant price 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 series of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among vintage enthusiasts.
“This style inspire nostalgia for a historical elegance,” says a historian, a curator at the a Las Vegas university, who studies the history of showgirls. “Now it is seen as a sort of ‘toned-down’ allure because it has been modified. It has got all the elegance, the rhinestones and the sparkle but without the nudity.”
A Than Just Style: An Symbol of the City
Chung says this figure are key to the identity of Sin City. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was accompanied by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas no longer has any traditional showgirl productions, Chung says they are still used as an logo of the city, being present at conventions and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a lasting figure of Vegas glamour,” she says.
The Allure of Transformation
Hardy says the transformative effect of a stage character is part of the attraction. This idea the singer references in a latest documentary series that shows the backstage action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included intense practice sessions, gym sessions and numerous concerts across dozens of cities, each going on for 3.5 hours.
The performer explains her own stage routines as “comparable to running a marathon in stilettos every night”. Her feathered headdress tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the steps to the stage from the backstage area three floors below in the underground. I had to start early for my moment so I could recover before I performed. You are sweating the whole time but creating this illusion that it’s easy and beautiful and dreamlike.”
Maybe this is where the appeal of the showgirl fantasy really resides. In the complexity of 2025 there is a desire for escapism. Who better to turn to than such icons, who have always represented dreams, perfection and a world where nobody falters.
