After a long-running stint on the Las Vegas strip, the performers from the spectacle Jubilee! executed their last choreographed kick in 2016. The show, famous for its elaborate costumes crafted by style icon Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to falling audience numbers and critical reviewers who labeled it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Currently, roughly eight years later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl style, is making a comeback.
The King of Sequins
Known as the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made over-the-top showgirl glamour his defining aesthetic, dressing everyone from Marilyn Monroe to music superstars. Earlier this month, a “naked” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, far exceeding its initial estimate, while a shimmering beaded bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more enticing for the younger performer who is desiring something other than what they knew from childhood”, he told a media outlet. “New stars are pushing toward a show-stopping, more spectacular, show-stopping, memorable statement.”
A Pop Culture Revival
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the centre of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 propelled by a chart-topping superstar. In the past few months, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The crystal-covered bra and thong, plumed armbands and sparkly headpiece were ideal for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.
She isn't alone. This year, showgirl inspirations have been adopted by singers including Sabrina Carpenter as they danced across arena stages in glitter, cut-outs and feathers, illuminated against theatrical sets. Lipa’s stylist her creative director explained to Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the mid-century, the backup dancers wafted giant plumed accessories.
Drawing from Tradition
Lipa, Carpenter and other chart toppers also take inspiration from classic entertainment forms, including vaudeville and dance line references. The final look are poles apart from the 1990s era teen pop of crop tops and cargo pants, and street-style dance moves that came before them.
But not everyone are convinced with this glamour resurgence. Nancy Hardy, a former Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the 00s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “employed as an umbrella term including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly today's icons.”
The Highly Sought-After Vintage Style
For gen Z and millennial stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become incredibly sought-after. In 2024, Zendaya honored to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the actress wore a translucent embellished 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 significant price to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn at an awards show to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a collection of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among collectors.
“This style evoke nostalgia for a past glamour,” says a historian, a curator at the a Las Vegas university, who studies the history of showgirls. “Now it is seen as a sort of ‘safe’ allure because it has been updated. It has got all the elegance, the sparkles and the glitter but without the bare skin.”
A Than Simply Style: An Icon of Las Vegas
She says the showgirl image are central to the identity of Vegas. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was flanked by two showgirls. While Las Vegas does not host any traditional showgirl productions, Chung says they are still employed as an logo of the city, appearing at gatherings and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a lasting icon of Vegas glitz and glamour,” she says.
An Appeal of Illusion
The former showgirl says the magical transformation of a showgirl persona is part of the allure. This is a notion Swift hints at in a new behind-the-scenes film that captures the behind-the-scenes action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting preparations, workouts and numerous shows across multiple nations, each lasting 3.5 hours.
Hardy recalls her own stage routines as “similar to extreme physical exertion in stilettos every night”. Her headdress was 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the staircase to the platform from the backstage area three floors below in the underground. I had to leave early for my entrance so I could rest before I made my entrance. You are perspiring the whole time but maintaining this fantasy that it’s simple and gorgeous and dreamlike.”
It could be this is where the fascination of the showgirl really is found. In the complexity of 2025 there is a longing for a break from reality. Who better to look to than showgirls, who have always embodied fantasy, idealism and a realm where nobody makes a mistake.
