After a three-decade tenure on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the performers from the production Jubilee! took a final synchronised kick in 2016. The extravaganza, known for its ornate costumes created by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, ended its run due to falling audience numbers and unimpressed commentators who described it as a spectacle “trapped in time”.
Currently, roughly eight years later, the showgirl, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is back.
A Master of Sparkle
Referred to as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made over-the-top showgirl glamour his defining aesthetic, dressing everyone from screen legends to music superstars. Earlier this month, a “barely-there” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, well over its initial estimate, while a silver and gold tasseled bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more appealing for the younger performer who is looking for something other than what they were accustomed to”, he told a media outlet. “Contemporary performers are pushing toward a show-stopping, more spectacular, breathtaking, grand statement.”
The Pop Culture Revival
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the centre of mainstream fashion in 2025 largely due to a chart-topping superstar. Recently, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The crystal-covered bra and thong, feathered armbands and glittering headpiece were perfect for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.
She has company. This year, showgirl references have been embraced by pop stars including Dua Lipa as they whizzed across world tours in sparkles, strategic openings and plumes, illuminated against overstated sets. Her fashion curator Lorenzo Posocco mentioned in an interview with a style publication he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the 1950s, the backup dancers fluttered giant plumed accessories.
Pulling from History
These artists and other hitmakers also take inspiration from 19th-century performances, including burlesque and dance line references. The outcome are worlds away from the 90s teen pop of crop tops and utilitarian trousers, and urban dance moves that were popular earlier.
But not everyone are convinced with this glamour resurgence. An ex-showgirl, a former Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the early 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “employed as an umbrella term covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently today's icons.”
The Highly Sought-After Retro Style
For younger and millennial stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a famous actress paid tribute to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the star wore a translucent beaded dress made by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, Miley Cyrus paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn earlier in the year to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a collection of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among vintage enthusiasts.
“Showgirls bring about nostalgia for a past glamour,” says an archivist, an expert at the University of Nevada, who researches the history of showgirls. “Currently it is seen as a sort of ‘acceptable’ allure because it has been adapted. It has got all the sophistication, the rhinestones and the sparkle but without the bare skin.”
A Than Simply Style: An Symbol of Vegas
Chung says the showgirl image are key to the identity of Sin City. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was surrounded by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-based productions, the historian says they are still employed as an logo of the city, being present at conventions and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a lasting icon of Vegas spectacle,” the expert says.
An Allure of Illusion
The former showgirl says the complete change of a showgirl is part of the attraction. This idea Taylor Swift references in a new docuseries that captures the backstage action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling practice sessions, gym sessions and countless performances across 21 countries, each lasting 3.5 hours.
The performer describes her own stage routines as “comparable to completing an endurance race in heels every night”. Her headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the stairs to the performance area from the dressing rooms three floors below in the underground. I had to start early for my entrance so I could recover before I performed. You are sweating the whole time but maintaining this illusion that it’s easy and gorgeous and magical.”
It could be this is where the appeal of the showgirl really is found. In the complexity of 2025 there is a desire for fantasy. Who better to look to than such icons, who have always embodied fantasy, perfection and a realm where no one misses a mark.
