🔗 Share this article

Following a 31-year tenure on the iconic Vegas strip, the performers from the production Jubilee! executed their last synchronised kick in 2016. The production, famous for its elaborate costumes crafted by style icon Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to dwindling audience numbers and critical critics who described it as a spectacle “a relic of another era”.

Today, nearly ten years later, the showgirl persona, or at least the showgirl style, is back.

A King of Sparkle

Dubbed the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made theatrical showgirl glitz his defining aesthetic, clothing everyone from Marilyn Monroe to pop royalty. Earlier this month, a “see-through” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, well over its estimated price, while a silver and gold beaded bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.

“In my view it looks more attractive for the younger performer who is desiring something other than what they knew from childhood”, he explained to a publication. “Today's artists are pushing toward a glamorous, more dramatic, breathtaking, memorable statement.”

The Musical Resurgence

It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the epicenter of mainstream fashion in 2025 propelled by a global pop icon. In the past few months, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The bedazzled bra and thong, feathered armbands and shimmering headpiece were perfect for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.

Swift has company. This year, glamorous nods have been incorporated by music artists including Miley Cyrus as they zoomed across concert platforms in sparkles, revealing designs and plumes, highlighted against camp sets. A top stylist her creative director explained to a style publication he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the mid-century, the backup dancers wafted giant ostrich feather fans.

Pulling from Tradition

Modern stars and other successful musicians also draw on 19th-century entertainment forms, including burlesque and dance line references. The outcome are worlds away from the 1990s era teen pop of revealing tops and cargo pants, and street-style dance moves that came before them.

But not everyone are on board with this showgirl revival. Nancy Hardy, a former Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the 00s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word term is being “used as an broad label including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly Taylor Swift.”

The Highly Sought-After Classic Style

For gen Z and modern stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become incredibly sought-after. In 2024, Zendaya paid tribute to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the actor wore a translucent sequined dress created by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, another pop star paid an private amount to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn earlier in the year to perform at the Grammys. In September, the singer wore a collection of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among fashion collectors.

“This style bring about nostalgia for a bygone era of glitz,” says a historian, a curator at the University of Nevada, who studies the story of showgirls. “Today it is considered a sort of ‘acceptable’ sexy because it has been modified. It has got all the sophistication, the sparkles and the sparkle but without the bare skin.”

A Than Simply Style: An Icon of Vegas

Chung says the showgirl image are central to the iconography of Sin City. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was surrounded by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas does not host any showgirl-centric productions, Jung says they are still employed as an logo of the city, showing up at gatherings and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a remaining icon of Vegas spectacle,” she says.

An Appeal of Escape

Hardy says the complete change of a showgirl is part of the allure. This idea Taylor Swift references in a latest behind-the-scenes film that captures the off-camera action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting practice sessions, gym sessions and numerous shows across dozens of cities, each lasting 3.5 hours.

She recalls her own stage routines as “similar to running a marathon in high heels every night”. Her headpiece weighed 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the stairs to the performance area from the green rooms three floors below in the lower level. I had to head up ahead of time for my moment so I could rest before I performed. You are working hard the whole time but crafting this fantasy that it’s easy and beautiful and ethereal.”

Maybe this is where the true allure of the showgirl really is found. In the complexity of 2025 there is a longing for escapism. What better figure to look to than showgirls, who have always embodied dreams, flawlessness and a world where no one makes a mistake.