After a 31-year run on the Las Vegas strip, the performers from the production Jubilee! gave one last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The show, famous for its ornate costumes designed by style icon Bob Mackie, ended its run due to declining audience numbers and unimpressed critics who described it as a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Currently, nearly ten years later, the showgirl, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is experiencing a revival.
The King of Sequins
Known as the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glitz his trademark look, dressing everyone from screen legends to Madonna. In a recent auction, a “barely-there” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, well over its initial estimate, while a silver and gold fringed bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more appealing for the younger performer who is desiring something other than what they were accustomed to”, he explained to a publication. “New stars are pushing toward a theatrical, more dramatic, breathtaking, memorable statement.”
A Pop Culture Revival
It’s a look that glided all the way to the centre of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 propelled by Taylor Swift. Recently, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and shimmering headpiece were ideal for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
She is part of a trend. This year, glamorous nods have been adopted by music artists including Dua Lipa as they whizzed across world tours in sparkles, strategic openings and feathers, spotlighted against overstated sets. A top stylist Lorenzo Posocco told a style publication he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the 1950s, her performers wafted giant ostrich feather fans.
Drawing from Tradition
Lipa, Carpenter and other chart toppers also take inspiration from historical performances, including classic theater and chorus 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 preceded this trend.
But not everyone are enthusiastic with this showgirl revival. Nancy Hardy, a ex- Jubilee! showgirl who entertained 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 seemingly today's icons.”
A Highly Sought-After Retro Style
For younger and millennial stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, Zendaya gave a nod to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actress wore a translucent embellished dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, Miley Cyrus paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn at an awards show 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.
“Showgirls bring about fond memories for a past glamour,” says an archivist, head of special collections at the an academic institution, who studies the legacy of showgirls. “Today it is viewed as a sort of ‘toned-down’ allure because it has been modified. It has got all the elegance, the rhinestones and the glitter but without the nudity.”
A Than Just Style: An Icon of Las Vegas
She says this figure are central to the identity of Vegas. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was flanked by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas does not host any showgirl-based productions, the historian says they are still employed as an emblem of the city, being present at corporate events and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a enduring icon of Las Vegas glitz and glamour,” she says.
An Appeal of Transformation
Hardy says the complete change of a showgirl persona is part of the appeal. This is a notion the singer references in a recent behind-the-scenes film that captures the backstage action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included intense preparations, training and numerous concerts across dozens of cities, each running for 3.5 hours.
She recalls her own showgirl performances as “comparable to extreme physical exertion in stilettos every night”. Her headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the stairs to the performance area from the backstage area three floors below in the basement. I had to leave early for my cue so I could catch my breath before I went on stage. You are working hard the whole time but creating this illusion that it’s effortless and beautiful and dreamlike.”
Maybe this is where the fascination of the showgirl fantasy really lies. In the complexity of 2025 there is a desire for fantasy. What better figure to emulate than these performers, who have always personified make-believe, flawlessness and a world where nobody misses a mark.
