Following a three-decade run on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the performers from the spectacle Jubilee! executed their last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The show, known for its intricate costumes created by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, ended its run due to dwindling audience numbers and critical critics who called it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Today, nearly ten years later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl style, is making a comeback.
A Sultan of Glitz
Known as the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made theatrical showgirl glamour his signature style, clothing everyone from Marilyn Monroe to Madonna. Earlier this month, a “barely-there” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, seven times its initial estimate, while a metallic fringed bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more appealing for the emerging artists who is seeking something other than what they grew up with”, he told a media outlet. “New stars are pushing toward a theatrical, more dramatic, attention-grabbing, entrance-making statement.”
A Pop Culture Resurgence
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the heart of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 thanks to a chart-topping superstar. Recently, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The bedazzled bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and shimmering headpiece were tailor-made for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
She has company. This year, showgirl inspirations have been embraced by music artists including Miley Cyrus as they whizzed across world tours in sequins, revealing designs and plumes, illuminated against theatrical sets. A top stylist her creative director mentioned in an interview with a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the mid-century, Lipa’s dancers waved giant plumed accessories.
Drawing from Tradition
Lipa, Carpenter and other chart toppers also reference historical performances, including classic theater and ensemble references. The outcome are worlds away from the late-century teen pop of short shirts and baggy pants, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that were popular earlier.
But some critics are enthusiastic with this glamour resurgence. An ex-showgirl, a former Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the early 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “used as an broad label including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly today's icons.”
A Highly Sought-After Classic Style
For younger and millennial stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a style icon honored to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the star wore a see-through beaded dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, a singer paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn at an awards show to perform at the Grammys. In September, the singer wore a trio of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among fashion collectors.
“The showgirl aesthetic evoke nostalgia for a past glamour,” says Su Kim Chung, an expert at the a Las Vegas university, who researches the legacy of showgirls. “Currently it is considered a sort of ‘acceptable’ sexy because it has been adapted. It has got all the sophistication, the rhinestones and the glitter but without the bare skin.”
More Than Simply Fashion: An Symbol of Las Vegas
She says this figure are central to the iconography of Vegas. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was surrounded by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-centric productions, the historian says they are still employed as an symbol of the city, appearing at gatherings and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a lasting figure of Las Vegas spectacle,” Chung says.
An Allure of Escape
Hardy says the magical transformation of a stage character is part of the attraction. It’s something Taylor Swift hints at in a recent documentary series that captures the behind-the-scenes action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling rehearsals, workouts and 149 performances across 21 countries, each running for 3.5 hours.
She recalls her own stage routines as “like extreme physical exertion in stilettos every night”. Her headpiece weighed 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the stairs to the stage from the backstage area three floors below in the lower level. I had to head up ahead of time for my cue so I could recover before I performed. You are perspiring the whole time but creating this fantasy that it’s simple and gorgeous and dreamlike.”
Maybe this is where the true allure of the showgirl fantasy really lies. In the busyness of 2025 there is a desire for escapism. Is there anyone better to emulate than these performers, who have always personified fantasy, flawlessness and a world where no one makes a mistake.
