Following a three-decade stint on the Las Vegas strip, the performers from the revue Jubilee! gave one last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The show, famous for its elaborate costumes crafted by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to declining audience numbers and unimpressed critics who called it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Now, nearly ten years later, the showgirl, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is making a comeback.
The King of Sparkle
Dubbed the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made over-the-top stage sparkle his defining aesthetic, outfitting everyone from screen legends to pop royalty. In a recent auction, a “see-through” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, seven times its projected value, while a shimmering beaded bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more enticing for the younger performer who is seeking something other than what they knew from childhood”, he explained to a newspaper. “New stars are striving for a theatrical, more theatrical, show-stopping, entrance-making statement.”
A Mainstream Revival
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. In the past few months, 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 tailor-made for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
She isn't alone. This year, glamorous nods have been adopted by pop stars including Dua Lipa as they danced across arena stages in sequins, cut-outs and feathers, spotlighted against overstated sets. Lipa’s stylist a fashion expert told Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the 50s, her performers waved giant ostrich feather fans.
Pulling from the Past
Lipa, Carpenter and other successful musicians also take inspiration from historical entertainment forms, including burlesque and ensemble references. The results are poles apart from the late-century teen pop of crop tops and cargo pants, and urban dance moves that came before them.
But not everyone are convinced with this showgirl renaissance. Nancy Hardy, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the 00s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “employed as an catch-all phrase including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently today's icons.”
The Highly Sought-After Classic Look
For gen Z and young adult stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a style icon paid tribute to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the actress wore a translucent sequined dress made by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, Miley Cyrus 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, Sabrina Carpenter wore a collection of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among collectors.
“Showgirls inspire fond memories for a bygone era of glitz,” says a historian, head of special collections at the University of Nevada, who studies the story of showgirls. “Today it is considered a sort of ‘acceptable’ appeal because it has been updated. It has got all the sophistication, the rhinestones and the shine but without the nudity.”
More Than Simply Style: An Icon of the City
She says the showgirl image are key to the imagery of Vegas. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was accompanied by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-centric productions, the historian says they are still used as an symbol of the city, being present at corporate events and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a enduring symbol of Las Vegas spectacle,” Chung says.
The Appeal of Transformation
Hardy says the magical transformation of a showgirl is part of the attraction. This is a notion Taylor Swift alludes to in a recent behind-the-scenes film that shows the off-camera action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling practice sessions, gym sessions and numerous shows across 21 countries, each lasting 3.5 hours.
She recalls her own stage routines as “similar to running a marathon in heels every night”. Her headdress was 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the stairs to the platform from the dressing rooms three floors below in the basement. I had to head up ahead of time for my cue so I could catch my breath before I made my entrance. You’re perspiring the whole time but crafting this illusion that it’s effortless and beautiful and dreamlike.”
It could be this is where the true allure of the showgirl really resides. In the busyness of 2025 there is a craving for escapism. What better figure to emulate than showgirls, who have always represented fantasy, perfection and a universe where no one misses a mark.
