After a 31-year run on the Las Vegas strip, the performers from the spectacle Jubilee! took a final perfectly timed kick in 2016. The production, known for its elaborate costumes created by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, came to an end due to dwindling audience numbers and unimpressed reviewers who labeled it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Today, almost a decade later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl style, is back.
A Sultan of Sequins
Dubbed the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made theatrical stage sparkle his defining aesthetic, dressing everyone from Hollywood icons to music superstars. Recently, a “see-through” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, well over its estimated price, while a shimmering beaded bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more enticing for the emerging artists who is seeking something other than what they knew from childhood”, he stated in an interview with a newspaper. “New stars are embracing a glamorous, more theatrical, attention-grabbing, memorable statement.”
The Pop Culture Comeback
It’s a look that glided all the way to the centre of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 thanks to a chart-topping superstar. Recently, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The crystal-covered bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and sparkly headpiece were tailor-made for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer has company. This year, glamorous nods have been embraced by music artists including Miley Cyrus as they danced across arena stages in sparkles, strategic openings and feathers, spotlighted against overstated sets. Lipa’s stylist a fashion expert mentioned in an interview with Vogue he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the mid-century, her performers waved giant ostrich feather fans.
Pulling from History
These artists and other hitmakers also reference 19th-century entertainment forms, including burlesque and ensemble references. The results are poles apart from the 90s teen pop of short shirts and cargo pants, and urban dance moves that were popular earlier.
But some critics are enthusiastic with this showgirl revival. An ex-showgirl, a former Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “employed as an broad label covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently today's icons.”
The Highly Sought-After Vintage Look
For gen Z and modern stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, Zendaya paid tribute to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the actor wore a semi-sheer beaded dress made by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, another pop star paid an private amount to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn earlier in the year to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a trio of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a favorite among fashion collectors.
“Showgirls bring about a sense of longing for a bygone era of glitz,” says an archivist, head of special collections at the a Las Vegas university, who documents the history of showgirls. “Today it is considered a sort of ‘toned-down’ appeal because it has been updated. It has got all the elegance, the sparkles and the glitter but without the nudity.”
More Than Just Style: An Symbol of the City
The expert says this figure are key to the iconography of Las Vegas. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was flanked by two showgirls. While Las Vegas does not host any traditional showgirl productions, Jung says they are still used as an logo of the city, showing up at corporate events and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a lasting icon of Vegas glitz and glamour,” she says.
An Appeal of Illusion
Nancy Hardy says the complete change of a showgirl persona is part of the allure. It’s something Taylor Swift references in a recent behind-the-scenes film that captures the backstage action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting practice sessions, gym sessions and 149 shows across multiple nations, each lasting 3.5 hours.
Hardy describes her own nights in the spotlight as “similar to running a marathon in heels every night”. Her feathered headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the stairs to the stage from the green rooms three floors below in the underground. I had to start early for my moment so I could rest before I performed. You are working hard the whole time but creating this fantasy that it’s simple and stunning and dreamlike.”
Perhaps this is where the true allure of the showgirl really lies. In the chaos of 2025 there is a longing for fantasy. What better figure to look to than such icons, who have always personified fantasy, perfection and a universe where no one makes a mistake.
