After a long-running stint on the Las Vegas strip, the performers from the revue Jubilee! took a final choreographed kick in 2016. The extravaganza, renowned for its elaborate costumes crafted by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to dwindling audience numbers and unimpressed reviewers who labeled it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Currently, roughly eight years later, the showgirl, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is making a comeback.
The Master of Sparkle
Dubbed the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made theatrical showgirl glitz his defining aesthetic, dressing everyone from screen legends to Madonna. Recently, a “naked” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, well over its initial estimate, while a shimmering fringed bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more enticing for the emerging artists who is looking for something other than what they knew from childhood”, he explained to a media outlet. “New stars are pushing toward a glamorous, more dramatic, show-stopping, entrance-making statement.”
A Pop Culture Revival
It’s a look that glided all the way to the centre of mainstream fashion in 2025 thanks to a chart-topping superstar. Recently, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, plumed armbands and shimmering headpiece were ideal for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer is part of a trend. This year, showgirl references have been incorporated by singers including Sabrina Carpenter as they whizzed across concert platforms in glitter, revealing designs and feathers, highlighted against theatrical sets. A top stylist her creative director explained to a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the mid-century, Lipa’s dancers wafted giant ostrich feather fans.
Drawing from History
Lipa, Carpenter and other chart toppers also take inspiration from 19th-century performances, including vaudeville and dance line references. The results are vastly different from the late-century teen pop of revealing tops and utilitarian trousers, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that preceded this trend.
But not everyone are on board with this showgirl revival. Nancy Hardy, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the 00s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word term is being “used as an catch-all phrase encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly today's icons.”
A Highly Sought-After Vintage Look
For gen Z and millennial stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become incredibly sought-after. In 2024, a famous actress honored to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the actor wore a translucent beaded dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, a singer 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 retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among fashion collectors.
“The showgirl aesthetic bring about fond memories for a bygone era of glitz,” says a historian, an expert at the an academic institution, who studies the history of showgirls. “Today it is seen as a sort of ‘acceptable’ sexy because it has been updated. It has got all the elegance, the crystals and the sparkle but without the exposure.”
More Than Just Style: An Symbol of Vegas
The expert says showgirls are central to the identity of Vegas. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was surrounded by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-centric productions, Chung says they are still featured as an logo of the city, showing up at corporate events and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a lasting symbol of Vegas spectacle,” Chung says.
The Appeal of Illusion
Hardy says the complete change of a showgirl is part of the allure. This is a notion the singer hints at in a latest documentary series that documents the behind-the-scenes action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included intense preparations, gym sessions and countless concerts across 21 countries, each going on for 3.5 hours.
She describes her own stage routines as “comparable to extreme physical exertion in stilettos every night”. Her headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the staircase to the stage from the green rooms three floors below in the underground. I had to leave early for my moment so I could rest before I performed. You are sweating the whole time but crafting this fantasy that it’s simple and gorgeous and dreamlike.”
Maybe this is where the fascination of the showgirl really resides. In the chaos of 2025 there is a longing for fantasy. Is there anyone better to emulate than such icons, who have always personified dreams, idealism and a world where no one falters.
