After a 31-year run on the iconic Vegas strip, the showgirls from the revue Jubilee! took a final choreographed kick in 2016. The production, famous for its ornate costumes crafted by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, ended its run due to declining audience numbers and disappointed commentators who described it as a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Today, almost a decade later, the showgirl, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is making a comeback.
The Sultan of Sequins
Referred to as the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made theatrical showgirl glitz his trademark look, 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, seven times its estimated price, while a metallic tasseled bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more appealing for the younger performer who is looking for something other than what they knew from childhood”, he stated in an interview with a media outlet. “Contemporary performers are embracing a glamorous, more spectacular, breathtaking, grand statement.”
A Musical Resurgence
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the epicenter of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 largely due to a chart-topping superstar. In the past few months, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The crystal-covered bra and thong, plumed armbands and glittering headpiece were perfect for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer has company. This year, showgirl references have been adopted by music artists including Dua Lipa as they zoomed across arena stages in glitter, cut-outs and plumes, illuminated against overstated sets. A top stylist a fashion expert mentioned in an interview with Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the 1950s, her performers waved giant plumed accessories.
Drawing from the Past
Modern stars and other chart toppers also take inspiration from 19th-century performances, including vaudeville and dance line references. The outcome are vastly different from the 1990s era teen pop of short shirts and baggy pants, and street-style dance moves that were popular earlier.
But not everyone are enthusiastic with this showgirl renaissance. Nancy Hardy, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word term is being “treated as an catch-all phrase covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even today's icons.”
The Highly Sought-After Classic Style
For gen Z and young adult stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a style icon gave a nod to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the actor wore a translucent embellished dress created by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, another pop star paid an private amount to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn at an awards show 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 popular item among fashion collectors.
“The showgirl aesthetic evoke nostalgia for a past glamour,” says Su Kim Chung, an expert at the an academic institution, who studies the legacy of showgirls. “Now it is viewed as a sort of ‘acceptable’ sexy because it has been adapted. It has got all the glamour, the rhinestones and the sparkle but without the exposure.”
More Than Simply Fashion: An Icon of the City
She says the showgirl image are integral to the iconography of Vegas. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was flanked by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas does not host any showgirl-based productions, the historian says they are still used as an logo of the city, showing up at gatherings and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a lasting figure of Vegas spectacle,” Chung says.
An Appeal of Escape
Nancy Hardy says the transformative effect of a showgirl is part of the appeal. This idea the singer hints at in a latest docuseries that captures the behind-the-scenes action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling practice sessions, workouts and numerous concerts across 21 countries, each running for 3.5 hours.
Hardy describes her own showgirl performances as “like completing an endurance race in stilettos every night”. Her headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the steps to the stage from the green rooms three floors below in the lower level. I had to head up ahead of time for my cue so I could rest before I made my entrance. You’re working hard the whole time but maintaining this image that it’s easy and beautiful and dreamlike.”
Maybe this is where the appeal of the showgirl really is found. In the complexity of 2025 there is a craving for a break from reality. Is there anyone better to emulate than such icons, who have always embodied dreams, idealism and a world where nobody makes a mistake.
