After a three-decade stint on the iconic Vegas strip, the performers from the production Jubilee! took a final perfectly timed kick in 2016. The production, famous for its ornate costumes created by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, ended its run due to dwindling audience numbers and unimpressed reviewers who described it as a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Currently, almost a decade later, the showgirl, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is back.
A King of Sparkle
Referred to as the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made theatrical showgirl glamour his trademark look, outfitting everyone from Hollywood icons to pop royalty. Earlier this month, a “see-through” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, seven times its estimated price, while a metallic fringed bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more enticing for the younger performer who is desiring something other than what they grew up with”, he explained to a media outlet. “Contemporary performers are striving for a show-stopping, more dramatic, attention-grabbing, grand statement.”
The Musical Comeback
It’s a look that glided all the way to the centre of popular culture in 2025 thanks to a global pop icon. Earlier this year, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The bedazzled bra and thong, plumed armbands and shimmering headpiece were tailor-made for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
She is part of a trend. This year, showgirl inspirations have been embraced by singers including Sabrina Carpenter as they whizzed across world tours in glitter, revealing designs and plumes, spotlighted against overstated sets. Lipa’s stylist Lorenzo Posocco told Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the 1950s, Lipa’s dancers wafted giant plumed accessories.
Drawing from History
These artists and other successful musicians also draw on historical entertainment forms, including classic theater and dance line references. The results are poles apart from the 1990s era teen pop of crop tops and baggy pants, and street-style dance moves that were popular earlier.
But some critics are on board 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 “employed as an catch-all phrase covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even today's icons.”
The Coveted Retro Look
For millennial and modern stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become incredibly sought-after. In 2024, Zendaya gave a nod to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actor wore a see-through embellished dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, Miley Cyrus paid an significant price to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn earlier in the year to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a series of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a favorite among collectors.
“The showgirl aesthetic evoke nostalgia for a past glamour,” says an archivist, head of special collections at the University of Nevada, who documents the legacy of showgirls. “Now it is seen as a sort of ‘safe’ allure because it has been modified. It has got all the glamour, the crystals and the shine but without the nudity.”
A Than Just Fashion: An Symbol of the City
She says this figure are key to the iconography of Vegas. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was surrounded by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-centric productions, the historian says they are still used as an emblem of the city, showing up at conventions and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a enduring icon of Vegas glitz and glamour,” she says.
An Appeal of Illusion
Nancy Hardy says the magical transformation of a stage character is part of the allure. It’s something Taylor Swift references in a new behind-the-scenes film that shows the backstage action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting rehearsals, training and 149 performances across dozens of cities, each lasting 3.5 hours.
Hardy recalls her own stage routines as “similar to running a marathon in stilettos every night”. Her feathered headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the staircase to the platform from the backstage area three floors below in the underground. I had to head up ahead of time for my cue so I could catch my breath before I performed. You’re perspiring the whole time but maintaining this illusion that it’s effortless and gorgeous and dreamlike.”
Maybe this is where the appeal of the showgirl fantasy really resides. In the busyness of 2025 there is a longing for a break from reality. Is there anyone better to emulate than showgirls, who have always personified dreams, idealism and a universe where no one misses a mark.
