After a long-running run on the iconic Vegas strip, the performers from the production Jubilee! gave one last choreographed kick in 2016. The show, renowned for its ornate costumes created by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, ended its run due to falling audience numbers and unimpressed reviewers who called it a spectacle “trapped in time”.
Now, roughly eight years later, the showgirl, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is back.
A King of Sequins
Known as the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made theatrical showgirl glamour his signature style, dressing everyone from Hollywood icons to music superstars. Recently, a “see-through” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, well over its projected value, while a shimmering fringed bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more appealing for the emerging artists who is looking for something other than what they knew from childhood”, he stated in an interview with a media outlet. “New stars are pushing toward a theatrical, more spectacular, show-stopping, entrance-making statement.”
The Mainstream Revival
It’s a look that sashayed 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 original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, feathered armbands and shimmering headpiece were perfect for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer has company. This year, showgirl inspirations have been incorporated by music artists including Dua Lipa as they whizzed across world tours in sparkles, strategic openings and plumes, spotlighted against camp sets. Her fashion curator Lorenzo Posocco explained to Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the mid-century, Lipa’s dancers wafted giant feathered fans.
Pulling from the Past
These artists and other hitmakers also reference 19th-century performances, including burlesque and dance line references. The final look are vastly different from the 90s pop style of revealing tops and utilitarian trousers, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that preceded this trend.
But some critics are on board with this showgirl revival. A former performer, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the 00s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “used as an broad label encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even today's icons.”
The Coveted Vintage Look
For younger and young adult stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, Zendaya gave a nod to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actor wore a translucent beaded dress made by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, a singer 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 trio of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among fashion collectors.
“This style inspire nostalgia for a historical elegance,” says an archivist, a curator at the University of Nevada, who researches the history of showgirls. “Now it is viewed as a sort of ‘acceptable’ appeal because it has been modified. It has got all the elegance, the rhinestones and the shine but without the exposure.”
More Than Simply Style: An Icon of the City
The expert says the showgirl image are integral to the iconography of Vegas. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was surrounded by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas no longer has any traditional showgirl productions, Jung says they are still employed as an emblem of the city, showing up at corporate events and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a remaining figure of Vegas glitz and glamour,” Chung says.
The Allure of Escape
Nancy Hardy says the transformative effect of a showgirl is part of the attraction. It’s something Taylor Swift references in a new behind-the-scenes film that documents the backstage action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included intense rehearsals, gym sessions and 149 shows across multiple nations, each lasting 3.5 hours.
The performer describes her own nights in the spotlight as “comparable to completing an endurance race in high heels every night”. Her headpiece was 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the stairs to the stage from the green rooms three floors below in the underground. I had to head up ahead of time for my moment so I could catch my breath before I went on stage. You are working hard the whole time but creating this fantasy that it’s easy and beautiful and dreamlike.”
It could be this is where the appeal of the showgirl fantasy really lies. In the chaos of 2025 there is a craving for fantasy. What better figure to emulate than showgirls, who have always represented make-believe, flawlessness and a realm where nobody falters.
