🔗 Share this article

Following a three-decade stint on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the showgirls from the production Jubilee! took a final choreographed kick in 2016. The production, known for its ornate costumes crafted by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to falling audience numbers and disappointed commentators who labeled it a spectacle “a relic of another era”.

Currently, almost a decade later, the showgirl, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is making a comeback.

The Sultan of Sparkle

Known as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made over-the-top stage sparkle his trademark look, outfitting everyone from Hollywood icons to pop royalty. Earlier this month, a “see-through” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, well over its initial estimate, while a shimmering tasseled bodysuit with lamé 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 seeking something other than what they were accustomed to”, he stated in an interview with a media outlet. “Today's artists are striving for a theatrical, more spectacular, breathtaking, grand statement.”

A Pop Culture Comeback

It’s a look that glided all the way to the epicenter of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 largely due to 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 crystal-covered bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and sparkly headpiece were perfect for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.

She has company. This year, showgirl references have been incorporated by singers including Sabrina Carpenter as they zoomed across concert platforms in sequins, cut-outs and ostrich feathers, spotlighted against theatrical sets. A top stylist her creative director mentioned in an interview with Vogue he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the mid-century, her performers fluttered giant plumed accessories.

Pulling from History

Modern stars and other chart toppers also draw on 19th-century entertainment forms, including vaudeville and dance line references. The results are vastly different from the 90s Britney Spears era of short shirts and utilitarian trousers, and urban dance moves that were popular earlier.

But not everyone are enthusiastic with this showgirl renaissance. Nancy Hardy, a former Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the early 2000s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word term is being “employed as an umbrella term covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently modern pop stars.”

A Coveted Vintage Look

For millennial and young adult stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, Zendaya gave a nod to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the actor wore a translucent sequined dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, a singer paid an significant price to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn at an awards show to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a collection of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a favorite among vintage enthusiasts.

“This style evoke a sense of longing for a historical elegance,” says a historian, a curator at the an academic institution, who researches the story of showgirls. “Currently it is seen as a sort of ‘toned-down’ sexy because it has been updated. It has got all the elegance, the crystals and the glitter but without the exposure.”

A Than Simply Style: An Icon of Las Vegas

The expert says this figure are central to the imagery of Sin City. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was flanked by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-centric productions, Chung says they are still used as an logo of the city, appearing at corporate events and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a enduring figure of Las Vegas glitz and glamour,” she says.

An Appeal of Transformation

Nancy Hardy says the transformative effect of a stage character is part of the allure. This is a notion the singer references in a recent behind-the-scenes film that captures the off-camera action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling rehearsals, training and countless concerts across dozens of cities, each lasting 3.5 hours.

She recalls her own showgirl performances as “similar to completing an endurance race in heels every night”. Her headdress tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the stairs to the platform from the green rooms three floors below in the basement. I had to leave early for my entrance so I could rest before I went on stage. One is working hard the whole time but maintaining this fantasy that it’s effortless and stunning and ethereal.”

It could be this is where the true allure of the showgirl really resides. In the busyness of 2025 there is a craving for a break from reality. Is there anyone better to turn to than these performers, who have always embodied dreams, perfection and a universe where no one makes a mistake.