🔗 Share this article

After a three-decade stint on the iconic Vegas strip, the showgirls from the revue Jubilee! executed their last choreographed kick in 2016. The show, renowned for its ornate costumes crafted by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to declining audience numbers and unimpressed commentators who described it as a spectacle “a relic of another era”.

Today, roughly eight years later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is back.

The Sultan of Sequins

Known as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made over-the-top showgirl glamour his defining aesthetic, dressing everyone from Hollywood icons to Madonna. Earlier this month, a “barely-there” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, well over its initial estimate, while a silver and gold fringed bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.

“I think it looks more appealing for the emerging artists who is looking for something other than what they were accustomed to”, he explained to a newspaper. “Today's artists are striving for a show-stopping, more theatrical, attention-grabbing, grand statement.”

A Musical Comeback

It’s a look that made its way all the way to the epicenter of popular culture in 2025 thanks to a global pop icon. Recently, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The bedazzled bra and thong, feathered armbands and sparkly headpiece were ideal for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.

Swift is part of a trend. This year, glamorous nods have been adopted by singers including Sabrina Carpenter as they whizzed across world tours in sparkles, revealing designs and plumes, spotlighted against theatrical sets. Lipa’s stylist her creative director 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 1950s, Lipa’s dancers waved giant ostrich feather fans.

Drawing from History

These artists and other chart toppers also take inspiration from 19th-century performances, including burlesque and dance line references. The results are worlds away from the 1990s era Britney Spears era of revealing tops and baggy pants, and urban dance moves that came before them.

But not everyone are convinced with this glamour resurgence. An ex-showgirl, a former Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the early 2000s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “employed as an catch-all phrase covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly today's icons.”

The Highly Sought-After Classic Style

For millennial and modern stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a famous actress paid tribute to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the star wore a see-through beaded dress made by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, another pop star paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn earlier in the year to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a series of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among collectors.

“The showgirl aesthetic bring about a sense of longing for a bygone era of glitz,” says an archivist, a curator at the a Las Vegas university, who documents the history of showgirls. “Currently it is considered a sort of ‘toned-down’ sexy because it has been updated. It has got all the elegance, the sparkles and the shine but without the exposure.”

More Than Simply Style: An Symbol of Las Vegas

The expert says this figure are central to the identity of Vegas. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was flanked by two showgirls. While Las Vegas currently lacks any traditional showgirl productions, the historian says they are still used as an logo of the city, being present at corporate events and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a remaining figure of Las Vegas glitz and glamour,” Chung says.

The Appeal of Illusion

The former showgirl says the transformative effect of a stage character is part of the allure. This idea Taylor Swift hints at in a recent docuseries that documents the backstage action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting preparations, workouts and countless shows across dozens of cities, each running for 3.5 hours.

Hardy explains her own stage routines as “like completing an endurance race in heels every night”. Her headpiece tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the steps to the platform from the backstage area three floors below in the basement. I had to start early for my moment so I could catch my breath before I went on stage. You’re sweating the whole time but creating this image that it’s easy and stunning and dreamlike.”

Maybe this is where the appeal of the showgirl fantasy really resides. In the complexity of 2025 there is a craving for a break from reality. What better figure to emulate than showgirls, who have always represented dreams, flawlessness and a world where nobody falters.