Following a 31-year run on the iconic Vegas strip, the dancers from the revue Jubilee! took a final choreographed kick in 2016. The production, known for its ornate costumes created by style icon Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to dwindling audience numbers and unimpressed reviewers who described it as a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Now, roughly eight years later, showgirls, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is experiencing a revival.
The King of Sequins
Dubbed the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glitz his signature style, dressing everyone from Hollywood icons to pop royalty. In a recent auction, a “see-through” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, seven times its estimated price, while a shimmering beaded bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more enticing for the emerging artists who is seeking something other than what they knew from childhood”, he explained to a newspaper. “Contemporary performers are striving for a show-stopping, more theatrical, show-stopping, entrance-making statement.”
The Musical Resurgence
It’s a look that glided all the way to the epicenter of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 propelled by a global pop icon. In the past few months, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The crystal-covered bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and sparkly headpiece were ideal for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer isn't alone. This year, glamorous nods have been adopted by singers including Sabrina Carpenter as they danced across concert platforms in glitter, revealing designs and feathers, spotlighted against overstated sets. Lipa’s stylist a fashion expert told a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the 50s, the backup dancers waved giant feathered fans.
Pulling from the Past
Lipa, Carpenter and other successful musicians also reference 19th-century entertainment forms, including classic theater and chorus line references. The results are poles apart from the 90s Britney Spears era of revealing tops and utilitarian trousers, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that came before them.
But some critics are convinced with this showgirl renaissance. Nancy Hardy, a former Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the 2000s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word term is being “treated as an umbrella term encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly today's icons.”
The Highly Sought-After Retro Style
For millennial and millennial stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a style icon gave a nod to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the actor wore a translucent sequined dress created by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, Miley Cyrus paid an significant price to buy the Mackie fringed 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 popular item among vintage enthusiasts.
“Showgirls evoke fond memories for a bygone era of glitz,” says a historian, head of special collections at the a Las Vegas university, who studies the history of showgirls. “Currently it is viewed as a sort of ‘toned-down’ sexy because it has been modified. It has got all the sophistication, the crystals and the shine but without the bare skin.”
More Than Simply Style: An Icon of Las Vegas
The expert says this figure are integral to the iconography of Las Vegas. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was flanked by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas currently lacks any traditional showgirl productions, Jung says they are still used as an symbol of the city, showing up at corporate events and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a remaining symbol of Vegas spectacle,” she says.
The Allure of Illusion
Nancy Hardy says the complete change of a stage character is part of the allure. It’s something Swift alludes to in a latest documentary series that captures the behind-the-scenes action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling preparations, workouts and 149 performances across multiple nations, each lasting 3.5 hours.
Hardy explains her own stage routines as “similar to extreme physical exertion in high heels every night”. Her headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the stairs to the performance area from the dressing rooms three floors below in the basement. I had to leave early for my moment so I could recover before I went on stage. One is sweating the whole time but crafting this image that it’s simple and stunning and dreamlike.”
Perhaps this is where the fascination of the showgirl fantasy really is found. In the busyness of 2025 there is a desire for a break from reality. Is there anyone better to turn to than such icons, who have always embodied fantasy, idealism and a world where nobody falters.
