After a long-running run on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the performers from the spectacle Jubilee! took a final perfectly timed kick in 2016. The production, famous for its elaborate costumes created by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to falling audience numbers and critical commentators who called it a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Currently, roughly eight years later, showgirls, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is making a comeback.
The King of Glitz
Dubbed the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made dramatic stage sparkle his defining aesthetic, dressing everyone from Hollywood icons to Madonna. Earlier this month, a “naked” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, well over its projected value, while a metallic beaded bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more enticing for the new generation of stars who is seeking something other than what they grew up with”, he told a media outlet. “Today's artists are striving for a glamorous, more dramatic, attention-grabbing, memorable statement.”
The Mainstream Resurgence
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the epicenter 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 rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and shimmering headpiece were ideal for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
She is part of a trend. This year, showgirl references have been incorporated by music artists including Dua Lipa as they danced across concert platforms in sequins, cut-outs and plumes, spotlighted against theatrical sets. Her fashion curator a fashion expert told a style publication he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the 1950s, her performers wafted giant ostrich feather fans.
Pulling from the Past
These artists and other hitmakers also take inspiration from historical performances, including classic theater and chorus line references. The final look are worlds away from the 90s pop style of short shirts and baggy pants, and street-style dance moves that preceded this trend.
But some critics are enthusiastic with this showgirl renaissance. An ex-showgirl, a former Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the 2000s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word term is being “employed as an umbrella term including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently today's icons.”
A Coveted Retro Style
For gen Z and modern stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become incredibly sought-after. In 2024, a style icon honored to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the star wore a translucent sequined dress made by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, another pop star 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 classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among collectors.
“This style inspire a sense of longing for a bygone era of glitz,” says Su Kim Chung, a curator at the an academic institution, who researches the story of showgirls. “Today it is seen as a sort of ‘toned-down’ appeal because it has been modified. It has got all the sophistication, the crystals and the glitter but without the exposure.”
More Than Just Fashion: An Icon of Vegas
Chung says the showgirl image are key to the iconography of Sin City. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was accompanied by two showgirls. While Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-based productions, the historian says they are still featured as an symbol of the city, appearing at gatherings and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a enduring symbol of Las Vegas glitz and glamour,” Chung says.
An Appeal of Illusion
Hardy says the magical transformation of a showgirl persona is part of the allure. This is a notion the singer references in a recent behind-the-scenes film that captures the backstage action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling rehearsals, workouts and countless shows across dozens of cities, each going on for 3.5 hours.
The performer recalls her own stage routines as “comparable to running a marathon in heels every night”. Her headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the staircase to the performance area from the dressing rooms three floors below in the underground. I had to head up ahead of time for my moment so I could recover before I made my entrance. You are perspiring the whole time but maintaining this fantasy that it’s simple and gorgeous and magical.”
It could be this is where the true allure of the showgirl fantasy really is found. In the busyness of 2025 there is a craving for a break from reality. Is there anyone better to emulate than showgirls, who have always personified make-believe, perfection and a universe where nobody falters.
