🔗 Share this article

After a three-decade stint on the Las Vegas strip, the showgirls from the revue Jubilee! gave one last choreographed kick in 2016. The extravaganza, renowned for its intricate costumes crafted by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, came to an end due to dwindling audience numbers and disappointed commentators who described it as a spectacle “trapped in time”.

Now, almost a decade later, the showgirl persona, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is experiencing a revival.

The King of Sequins

Referred to as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glamour his defining aesthetic, dressing everyone from Marilyn Monroe to music superstars. In a recent auction, a “barely-there” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, well over its initial estimate, 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 enticing for the new generation of stars who is looking for something other than what they grew up with”, he told a newspaper. “Contemporary performers are embracing a glamorous, more dramatic, breathtaking, grand statement.”

A Mainstream Revival

It’s a look that made its way all the way to the centre of popular culture in 2025 thanks to a chart-topping superstar. Recently, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The crystal-covered bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and sparkly headpiece were tailor-made for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.

The singer has company. This year, showgirl inspirations have been embraced by pop stars including Miley Cyrus as they danced across concert platforms in glitter, revealing designs and ostrich feathers, highlighted against camp sets. A top stylist Lorenzo Posocco told a style publication he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the 1950s, Lipa’s dancers wafted giant feathered fans.

Drawing from History

These artists and other successful musicians also reference classic entertainment forms, including classic theater and dance line references. The final look are poles apart from the 90s Britney Spears era of crop tops and utilitarian trousers, and street-style dance moves that came before them.

But certain observers are convinced with this showgirl revival. A former performer, a former Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the 00s 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 Taylor Swift.”

A Highly Sought-After Retro Look

For gen Z and millennial stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a style icon paid tribute to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actor wore a translucent embellished dress made by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, a singer paid an private amount to buy the Mackie fringed 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 popular item among vintage enthusiasts.

“Showgirls inspire nostalgia for a bygone era of glitz,” says a historian, an expert at the University of Nevada, who studies the legacy of showgirls. “Today it is viewed as a sort of ‘safe’ sexy because it has been adapted. It has got all the glamour, the sparkles and the shine but without the bare skin.”

A Than Simply Style: An Symbol of Las Vegas

The expert says the showgirl image are key to the iconography of Sin City. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was flanked by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-based productions, Chung says they are still featured as an logo of the city, being present at gatherings and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a enduring icon of Vegas glamour,” the expert says.

An Appeal of Escape

Nancy Hardy says the complete change of a stage character is part of the appeal. It’s something Taylor Swift alludes to in a recent docuseries that captures the backstage action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting practice sessions, gym sessions and numerous concerts across multiple nations, each going on for 3.5 hours.

Hardy recalls her own nights in the spotlight as “comparable to extreme physical exertion in stilettos every night”. Her headpiece tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the staircase to the stage from the green rooms three floors below in the basement. I had to start early for my entrance so I could recover before I made my entrance. One is working hard the whole time but crafting this fantasy that it’s easy and beautiful and magical.”

Perhaps this is where the true allure of the showgirl really resides. In the chaos of 2025 there is a craving for escapism. What better figure to emulate than showgirls, who have always represented make-believe, perfection and a realm where no one makes a mistake.