Following a long-running tenure on the Las Vegas strip, the dancers from the production Jubilee! gave one last choreographed kick in 2016. The extravaganza, famous for its ornate costumes created by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, came to an end due to falling audience numbers and unimpressed reviewers who called it a spectacle “trapped in time”.
Now, roughly eight years later, showgirls, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is making a comeback.
The King of Sparkle
Referred to as the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made over-the-top stage sparkle his trademark look, dressing everyone from screen legends to pop royalty. Earlier this month, a “barely-there” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, well over its estimated price, while a silver and gold tasseled bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more enticing for the younger performer who is desiring something other than what they were accustomed to”, he explained to a newspaper. “New stars are pushing toward a theatrical, more dramatic, attention-grabbing, entrance-making statement.”
The Pop Culture Revival
It’s a look that glided all the way to the epicenter of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 thanks to a global pop icon. In the past few months, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The crystal-covered bra and thong, feathered armbands and sparkly headpiece were tailor-made for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
She is part of a trend. This year, glamorous nods have been embraced by singers including Dua Lipa as they danced across arena stages in sequins, strategic openings and feathers, illuminated against camp sets. Lipa’s stylist Lorenzo Posocco told a style publication he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the mid-century, Lipa’s dancers fluttered giant ostrich feather fans.
Pulling from History
These artists and other successful musicians also take inspiration from 19th-century entertainment forms, including vaudeville and chorus line references. The results are vastly different from the late-century Britney Spears era of short shirts and baggy pants, and street-style dance moves that came before them.
But some critics are enthusiastic with this showgirl renaissance. A former performer, a former Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the 00s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “used as an catch-all phrase covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even modern pop stars.”
A Coveted Vintage Look
For younger and millennial stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, Zendaya honored to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the star wore a see-through beaded dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, another pop star paid an private amount 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 vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a favorite among vintage enthusiasts.
“Showgirls bring about a sense of longing for a bygone era of glitz,” says Su Kim Chung, a curator at the a Las Vegas university, who studies the story of showgirls. “Currently it is viewed as a sort of ‘safe’ sexy because it has been updated. It has got all the elegance, the rhinestones and the glitter but without the bare skin.”
More Than Just Fashion: An Symbol of the City
She says this figure are integral to the iconography of Vegas. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was accompanied by two showgirls. While Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-based productions, Jung says they are still used as an symbol of the city, being present at corporate events and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a lasting figure of Vegas glamour,” Chung says.
An Appeal of Escape
Hardy says the transformative effect of a showgirl persona is part of the appeal. This is a notion Taylor Swift references in a recent docuseries that captures the backstage action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included intense practice sessions, training and 149 performances across dozens of cities, each running for 3.5 hours.
She explains her own showgirl performances as “comparable to extreme physical exertion in heels every night”. Her headpiece weighed 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the steps to the stage from the dressing rooms three floors below in the lower level. I had to start early for my cue so I could catch my breath before I went on stage. You are sweating the whole time but maintaining this illusion that it’s simple and gorgeous and ethereal.”
Perhaps this is where the appeal of the showgirl really is found. In the busyness of 2025 there is a longing for a break from reality. What better figure to look to than such icons, who have always personified dreams, idealism and a universe where nobody makes a mistake.
