After a long-running run on the Las Vegas strip, the showgirls from the production Jubilee! took a final choreographed kick in 2016. The extravaganza, renowned for its elaborate costumes crafted by style icon Bob Mackie, ended its run due to falling audience numbers and disappointed reviewers who described it as a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Currently, roughly eight years later, the showgirl, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is making a comeback.
The King of Sparkle
Referred to as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glamour his defining aesthetic, clothing everyone from screen legends to pop royalty. In a recent auction, a “see-through” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, well over its initial estimate, while a metallic beaded bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more appealing for the younger performer who is looking for something other than what they knew from childhood”, he explained to a newspaper. “New stars are striving for a theatrical, more dramatic, attention-grabbing, entrance-making statement.”
The Mainstream Comeback
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the heart of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 propelled by a chart-topping superstar. Earlier this year, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The crystal-covered bra and thong, plumed armbands and glittering headpiece were ideal for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.
She is part of a trend. This year, showgirl references have been adopted by pop stars including Sabrina Carpenter as they whizzed across world tours in sparkles, revealing designs and plumes, illuminated against camp sets. Lipa’s stylist a fashion expert mentioned in an interview with a style publication he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the 50s, her performers wafted giant plumed accessories.
Pulling from the Past
Lipa, Carpenter and other chart toppers also draw on 19th-century entertainment forms, including vaudeville and ensemble references. The results are poles apart from the late-century Britney Spears era of crop tops and baggy pants, and street-style dance moves that preceded this trend.
But some critics are enthusiastic with this showgirl revival. Nancy Hardy, a ex- Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “used as an catch-all phrase encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently today's icons.”
The Coveted Retro Style
For gen Z and modern stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a style icon paid tribute to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the actor wore a translucent beaded dress created by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, Miley Cyrus paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn at an awards show to perform at the Grammys. In September, the singer wore a collection of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among collectors.
“This style bring about a sense of longing for a bygone era of glitz,” says Su Kim Chung, a curator at the an academic institution, who studies the legacy of showgirls. “Today it is viewed as a sort of ‘acceptable’ allure because it has been updated. It has got all the sophistication, the sparkles and the shine but without the exposure.”
More Than Simply Style: An Symbol of the City
Chung says the showgirl image are central to the iconography of Las Vegas. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was accompanied by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas does not host any traditional showgirl productions, Chung says they are still featured as an symbol of the city, appearing at gatherings and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a enduring icon of Las Vegas glamour,” she says.
The Appeal of Illusion
Nancy Hardy says the transformative effect of a showgirl is part of the appeal. It’s something Taylor Swift references in a latest documentary series that documents the behind-the-scenes action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included intense practice sessions, gym sessions and countless concerts across dozens of cities, each going on for 3.5 hours.
The performer recalls her own nights in the spotlight as “like running a marathon in high heels every night”. Her feathered headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the stairs to the stage from the green rooms three floors below in the lower level. I had to start early for my cue so I could recover before I went on stage. One is perspiring the whole time but maintaining this image that it’s effortless and gorgeous and ethereal.”
Perhaps this is where the appeal of the showgirl really resides. In the busyness of 2025 there is a craving for escapism. Is there anyone better to turn to than these performers, who have always represented make-believe, idealism and a world where no one falters.
