Following a 31-year stint on the Las Vegas strip, the showgirls from the spectacle Jubilee! executed their last choreographed kick in 2016. The extravaganza, renowned for its elaborate costumes created by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, came to an end due to dwindling audience numbers and critical commentators who called it a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Today, almost a decade later, showgirls, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is back.
The Sultan of Glitz
Dubbed the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glamour his trademark look, dressing everyone from Marilyn Monroe to Madonna. In a recent auction, a “see-through” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, seven times its estimated price, while a silver and gold fringed bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more appealing for the younger performer who is looking for something other than what they knew from childhood”, he stated in an interview with a newspaper. “Today's artists are pushing toward a theatrical, more theatrical, show-stopping, grand statement.”
The Mainstream Comeback
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the epicenter of popular culture in 2025 propelled by Taylor Swift. Earlier this year, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, plumed armbands and sparkly headpiece were tailor-made for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift isn't alone. This year, glamorous nods have been incorporated by music artists including Dua Lipa as they danced across concert platforms in sparkles, revealing designs and feathers, spotlighted against overstated sets. Her fashion curator a fashion expert explained to Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the mid-century, the backup dancers wafted giant ostrich feather fans.
Pulling from Tradition
Modern stars and other chart toppers also reference classic entertainment forms, including burlesque and ensemble references. The outcome are poles apart from the 90s Britney Spears era of short shirts and cargo pants, and urban dance moves that preceded this trend.
But some critics are convinced with this glamour resurgence. A former performer, a former Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the early 2000s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “treated as an umbrella term encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly Taylor Swift.”
A Highly Sought-After Classic Style
For younger and millennial stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a famous actress honored to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the star wore a see-through sequined dress created by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, Miley Cyrus paid an significant price to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn previously to perform at the Grammys. In September, the singer wore a series of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among collectors.
“Showgirls bring about a sense of longing for a past glamour,” says a historian, an expert at the University of Nevada, who documents the legacy of showgirls. “Currently it is seen as a sort of ‘acceptable’ appeal because it has been adapted. It has got all the sophistication, the crystals and the glitter but without the exposure.”
More Than Simply Fashion: An Icon of the City
She says this figure are central to the imagery of Vegas. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was flanked by two showgirls. While Las Vegas does not host any showgirl-centric productions, Jung says they are still used as an logo of the city, appearing at conventions and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a remaining symbol of Vegas glamour,” she says.
An Appeal of Illusion
Nancy Hardy says the complete change of a stage character is part of the appeal. This is a notion the singer references in a recent documentary series that captures the behind-the-scenes action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included intense rehearsals, workouts and 149 concerts across multiple nations, each going on for 3.5 hours.
Hardy explains her own stage routines as “like running a marathon in high heels every night”. Her feathered headdress was 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 went on stage. One is perspiring the whole time but crafting this image that it’s effortless and gorgeous and magical.”
It could be this is where the appeal of the showgirl really is found. In the complexity of 2025 there is a craving for escapism. What better figure to emulate than such icons, who have always personified dreams, idealism and a universe where nobody falters.
