Following a 31-year run on the Las Vegas strip, the showgirls from the production Jubilee! took a final perfectly timed kick in 2016. The show, famous for its intricate costumes created by style icon Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to falling audience numbers and unimpressed reviewers who described it as a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Now, roughly eight years later, the showgirl, or at least the showgirl style, is experiencing a revival.
A King of Sparkle
Referred to as the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made dramatic stage sparkle his trademark look, dressing everyone from Marilyn Monroe to Madonna. Recently, a “see-through” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, seven times its initial estimate, while a shimmering tasseled bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more attractive for the emerging artists who is looking for something other than what they knew from childhood”, he told a media outlet. “New stars are striving for a glamorous, more theatrical, show-stopping, grand statement.”
A Musical Comeback
It’s a look that glided all the way to the epicenter of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 largely due to a global pop icon. Earlier this year, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The crystal-covered bra and thong, feathered armbands and glittering headpiece were tailor-made for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
She isn't alone. This year, showgirl inspirations have been incorporated by pop stars including Dua Lipa as they whizzed across world tours in sparkles, strategic openings and plumes, spotlighted against camp sets. Lipa’s stylist her creative director explained to Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the 1950s, her performers wafted giant feathered fans.
Drawing from Tradition
Lipa, Carpenter and other successful musicians also draw on classic performances, including vaudeville and chorus line references. The outcome are worlds away from the 90s pop style of crop tops and utilitarian trousers, and urban dance moves that came before them.
But not everyone are on board with this showgirl renaissance. A former performer, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “treated as an umbrella term including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even modern pop stars.”
The Highly Sought-After Classic Style
For younger and millennial stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a famous actress gave a nod to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actor wore a translucent embellished dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, another pop star 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, the singer wore a series of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among fashion collectors.
“This style evoke nostalgia for a historical elegance,” says a historian, a curator at the a Las Vegas university, who documents the story of showgirls. “Now it is considered a sort of ‘safe’ sexy because it has been modified. It has got all the glamour, the rhinestones and the shine but without the bare skin.”
A Than Just Style: An Symbol of Vegas
The expert says showgirls are central to the iconography of Sin City. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was accompanied 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, being present at corporate events and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a remaining figure of Las Vegas glitz and glamour,” the expert says.
The Appeal of Illusion
Hardy says the complete change of a showgirl persona is part of the appeal. This is a notion Taylor Swift alludes to in a recent docuseries that shows the behind-the-scenes action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling practice sessions, training and 149 performances across multiple nations, each running for 3.5 hours.
She explains her own nights in the spotlight as “like completing an endurance race in high heels every night”. Her feathered headdress tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the steps to the platform from the dressing rooms three floors below in the lower level. I had to head up ahead of time for my entrance so I could rest before I made my entrance. You are perspiring the whole time but maintaining this fantasy that it’s easy and gorgeous and magical.”
Perhaps this is where the true allure of the showgirl fantasy really resides. In the busyness of 2025 there is a desire for escapism. Who better to turn to than these performers, who have always represented make-believe, idealism and a universe where nobody makes a mistake.
