Following a three-decade tenure on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the dancers from the spectacle Jubilee! executed their last choreographed kick in 2016. The extravaganza, famous for its elaborate costumes crafted by style icon Bob Mackie, ended its run due to dwindling audience numbers and disappointed reviewers who labeled it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Currently, roughly eight years later, the showgirl persona, or at least the showgirl style, is making a comeback.
The King of Glitz
Dubbed the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made over-the-top showgirl glitz his defining aesthetic, clothing everyone from Hollywood icons to pop royalty. Recently, a “naked” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, well over its initial estimate, while a silver and gold beaded bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more appealing for the emerging artists who is desiring something other than what they were accustomed to”, he explained to a newspaper. “Contemporary performers are striving for a glamorous, more theatrical, attention-grabbing, grand statement.”
The Mainstream Resurgence
It’s a look that glided all the way to the epicenter of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 thanks to a chart-topping superstar. Earlier this year, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The bedazzled bra and thong, plumed armbands and sparkly headpiece were tailor-made for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer has company. This year, showgirl references have been incorporated by music artists including Dua Lipa as they danced across world tours in sparkles, strategic openings and plumes, spotlighted against theatrical sets. Lipa’s stylist a fashion expert told Vogue he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the 1950s, the backup dancers wafted giant ostrich feather fans.
Pulling from Tradition
Lipa, Carpenter and other chart toppers also reference 19th-century entertainment forms, including vaudeville and chorus line references. The final look are vastly different from the 1990s era teen pop of revealing tops and baggy pants, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that came before them.
But some critics are on board with this showgirl revival. Nancy Hardy, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the 00s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “used as an broad label covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even modern pop stars.”
The Highly Sought-After Retro Look
For younger and modern stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a style icon gave a nod to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the star wore a translucent sequined dress created by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, another pop star paid an private amount to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn previously to perform at the Grammys. In September, Sabrina Carpenter wore a series of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a favorite among fashion collectors.
“The showgirl aesthetic bring about fond memories for a bygone era of glitz,” says Su Kim Chung, an expert at the an academic institution, who studies the legacy of showgirls. “Today it is seen as a sort of ‘toned-down’ allure because it has been adapted. It has got all the sophistication, the crystals and the sparkle but without the exposure.”
A Than Simply Fashion: An Icon of Vegas
The expert says the showgirl image are integral to the identity of Sin City. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was surrounded by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas does not host any showgirl-based productions, the historian says they are still employed as an logo of the city, being present at corporate events and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a lasting figure of Las Vegas glamour,” the expert says.
An Allure of Escape
The former showgirl says the complete change of a showgirl is part of the attraction. It’s something Taylor Swift hints at in a latest docuseries that shows the off-camera action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included intense rehearsals, gym sessions and 149 performances across multiple nations, each lasting 3.5 hours.
She describes her own showgirl performances as “comparable to running a marathon in stilettos every night”. Her feathered headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the steps to the platform from the green rooms three floors below in the lower level. I had to start early for my entrance so I could recover before I went on stage. You are perspiring the whole time but maintaining this image that it’s simple and gorgeous and magical.”
It could be this is where the fascination of the showgirl fantasy really resides. In the complexity of 2025 there is a desire for fantasy. Is there anyone better to turn to than these performers, who have always embodied make-believe, perfection and a universe where no one misses a mark.
