🔗 Share this article

After a long-running tenure on the iconic Vegas strip, the performers from the spectacle Jubilee! executed their last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The production, famous for its ornate costumes created by style icon Bob Mackie, ended its run due to dwindling audience numbers and critical critics who called it a spectacle “trapped in time”.

Today, almost a decade later, showgirls, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is back.

A King of Sparkle

Known as the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glamour his signature style, outfitting everyone from screen legends to Madonna. Earlier this month, a “barely-there” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, far exceeding its projected value, while a metallic tasseled bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.

“I think it looks more attractive for the younger performer who is looking for something other than what they grew up with”, he explained to a media outlet. “Contemporary performers are striving for a show-stopping, more spectacular, show-stopping, grand statement.”

The Mainstream Revival

It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the heart of mainstream fashion in 2025 thanks to Taylor Swift. In the past few months, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, plumed armbands and glittering headpiece were ideal for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.

Swift isn't alone. This year, showgirl references have been embraced by singers including Sabrina Carpenter as they danced across arena stages in sparkles, cut-outs and feathers, illuminated against theatrical sets. Her fashion curator Lorenzo Posocco explained to a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the 1950s, the backup dancers wafted giant ostrich feather fans.

Pulling from Tradition

These artists and other chart toppers also draw on 19th-century performances, including vaudeville and chorus line references. The results are vastly different from the late-century Britney Spears era of short shirts and utilitarian trousers, and urban dance moves that came before them.

But some critics are on board with this showgirl revival. An ex-showgirl, a former Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the early 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word term is being “employed as an broad label including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently today's icons.”

The Highly Sought-After Retro Look

For younger and modern stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, Zendaya gave a nod to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actor wore a see-through beaded dress made by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, 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 trio of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among collectors.

“The showgirl aesthetic evoke fond memories for a bygone era of glitz,” says an archivist, an expert at the an academic institution, who studies the legacy of showgirls. “Currently it is seen as a sort of ‘acceptable’ appeal because it has been updated. It has got all the glamour, the sparkles and the shine but without the bare skin.”

More Than Just Fashion: An Symbol of Vegas

Chung says showgirls are key to the identity of Las Vegas. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was surrounded by two showgirls. While Las Vegas does not host any showgirl-based productions, Chung says they are still employed as an emblem of the city, appearing at gatherings and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a enduring figure of Vegas spectacle,” Chung says.

The Allure of Illusion

The former showgirl says the complete change of a showgirl persona is part of the attraction. It’s something Swift references in a recent behind-the-scenes film that shows the behind-the-scenes action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting rehearsals, workouts and numerous concerts across multiple nations, each running for 3.5 hours.

The performer explains her own nights in the spotlight as “like completing an endurance race in stilettos every night”. Her feathered headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the steps to the platform from the green rooms three floors below in the underground. I had to head up ahead of time for my entrance so I could rest before I made my entrance. You’re sweating the whole time but maintaining this image that it’s simple and beautiful and magical.”

Maybe this is where the true allure of the showgirl fantasy really is found. In the chaos of 2025 there is a craving for fantasy. Is there anyone better to look to than such icons, who have always represented make-believe, perfection and a universe where no one falters.