After a long-running tenure on the Las Vegas strip, the performers from the revue Jubilee! took a final choreographed kick in 2016. The production, known for its elaborate costumes designed by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, came to an end due to dwindling audience numbers and critical reviewers who labeled it a spectacle “trapped in time”.
Currently, roughly eight years later, the showgirl, or at least the showgirl style, is back.
The Sultan of Sparkle
Dubbed the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made theatrical showgirl glamour his defining aesthetic, dressing everyone from Hollywood icons to pop royalty. In a recent auction, a “see-through” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, seven times its projected value, while a shimmering tasseled bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more appealing for the emerging artists who is looking for something other than what they grew up with”, he stated in an interview with a publication. “New stars are striving for a show-stopping, more dramatic, attention-grabbing, grand statement.”
A Musical Revival
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the centre of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 propelled by a chart-topping superstar. Recently, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The bedazzled bra and thong, feathered armbands and sparkly headpiece were ideal for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer isn't alone. This year, showgirl inspirations have been incorporated by pop stars including Dua Lipa as they zoomed across concert platforms in sequins, cut-outs and feathers, spotlighted against overstated sets. Her fashion curator her creative director explained to a style publication he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the 1950s, her performers waved giant ostrich feather fans.
Drawing from History
Modern stars and other successful musicians also reference 19th-century performances, including classic theater and dance line references. The outcome are vastly different from the 90s pop style of revealing tops and baggy pants, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that were popular earlier.
But certain observers are enthusiastic with this showgirl renaissance. An ex-showgirl, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the 2000s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word term is being “used as an broad label including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even Taylor Swift.”
A Highly Sought-After Classic Look
For millennial and modern stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, Zendaya honored to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the star wore a translucent sequined dress created by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, Miley Cyrus paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn earlier in the year to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a collection of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among vintage enthusiasts.
“This style inspire a sense of longing for a past glamour,” says Su Kim Chung, head of special collections at the an academic institution, who studies the history of showgirls. “Today it is viewed as a sort of ‘safe’ sexy because it has been adapted. It has got all the sophistication, the rhinestones and the glitter but without the nudity.”
More Than Just Fashion: An Icon of Vegas
Chung says showgirls are key to the iconography of Sin City. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was flanked by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas does not host any showgirl-based productions, Jung says they are still featured as an emblem of the city, appearing at gatherings and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a enduring icon of Las Vegas spectacle,” she says.
An Allure of Transformation
Nancy Hardy says the complete change of a showgirl persona is part of the attraction. This is a notion the singer references in a recent behind-the-scenes film that documents the off-camera action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling practice sessions, workouts and numerous concerts across multiple nations, each going on for 3.5 hours.
She describes her own nights in the spotlight as “like completing an endurance race in high heels every night”. Her headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the steps to the platform from the dressing rooms three floors below in the underground. I had to head up ahead of time for my entrance so I could recover before I performed. You are perspiring the whole time but crafting this fantasy that it’s easy and stunning and dreamlike.”
Perhaps this is where the appeal of the showgirl fantasy really resides. In the complexity of 2025 there is a desire for a break from reality. What better figure to look to than these performers, who have always personified make-believe, idealism and a universe where nobody misses a mark.
