After a three-decade tenure on the Las Vegas strip, the performers from the revue Jubilee! executed their last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The show, renowned for its intricate costumes crafted by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, ended its run due to dwindling audience numbers and critical critics who called it a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Now, almost a decade later, the showgirl, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is back.
The Sultan of Glitz
Known as the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made over-the-top showgirl glamour his signature style, clothing everyone from Hollywood icons to Madonna. Earlier this month, a “see-through” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, seven times its initial estimate, while a shimmering tasseled bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more attractive for the younger performer who is desiring something other than what they grew up with”, he explained to a newspaper. “Contemporary performers are striving for a glamorous, more theatrical, attention-grabbing, grand statement.”
A Musical Comeback
It’s a look that glided all the way to the epicenter of mainstream fashion in 2025 thanks to a global pop icon. In the past few months, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The bedazzled bra and thong, plumed armbands and shimmering headpiece were tailor-made for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer has company. This year, showgirl inspirations have been embraced by pop stars including Dua Lipa as they danced across concert platforms in sequins, revealing designs and ostrich feathers, illuminated against camp sets. A top stylist Lorenzo Posocco told Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the mid-century, her performers fluttered giant ostrich feather fans.
Pulling from History
These artists and other successful musicians also draw on classic entertainment forms, including burlesque and dance line references. The outcome are poles apart from the 90s teen pop of revealing tops and baggy pants, and street-style dance moves that preceded this trend.
But not everyone are enthusiastic with this showgirl revival. Nancy Hardy, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the 2000s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “used as an umbrella term including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently Taylor Swift.”
The Highly Sought-After Vintage Style
For millennial and modern stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a famous actress honored to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the actor wore a translucent sequined dress created by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, a singer paid an private amount to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn earlier in the year to perform at the Grammys. In September, Sabrina Carpenter wore a trio of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among collectors.
“The showgirl aesthetic evoke a sense of longing for a bygone era of glitz,” says Su Kim Chung, head of special collections at the an academic institution, who researches the history of showgirls. “Now it is considered a sort of ‘safe’ appeal because it has been adapted. It has got all the glamour, the sparkles and the shine but without the bare skin.”
A Than Just Style: An Symbol of the City
She says the showgirl image are key to the iconography of Vegas. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was accompanied by two showgirls. While Las Vegas does not host any traditional showgirl productions, Jung says they are still employed as an symbol of the city, being present at corporate events and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a lasting icon of Las Vegas spectacle,” the expert says.
The Allure of Illusion
Hardy says the complete change of a showgirl persona is part of the appeal. This idea the singer alludes to in a recent docuseries that shows the off-camera action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included intense rehearsals, training and 149 shows across 21 countries, each going on for 3.5 hours.
She describes her own nights in the spotlight as “like completing an endurance race in heels every night”. Her headpiece tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the staircase 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 made my entrance. One is sweating the whole time but creating this illusion that it’s effortless and beautiful and magical.”
Maybe this is where the appeal of the showgirl fantasy really resides. In the chaos of 2025 there is a longing for fantasy. Who better to turn to than such icons, who have always embodied fantasy, flawlessness and a realm where no one falters.
