Following a 31-year run on the iconic Vegas strip, the performers from the revue Jubilee! gave one last choreographed kick in 2016. The show, famous for its intricate costumes designed by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, came to an end due to declining audience numbers and critical critics who described it as a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Today, nearly ten years later, the showgirl, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is back.
A Sultan of Sparkle
Referred to as the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made over-the-top showgirl glamour his trademark look, outfitting everyone from Marilyn Monroe to music superstars. In a recent auction, a “barely-there” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, well over its initial estimate, while a silver and gold fringed bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more enticing for the younger performer who is seeking something other than what they grew up with”, he stated in an interview with a newspaper. “New stars are pushing toward a glamorous, more dramatic, attention-grabbing, entrance-making statement.”
A Musical Resurgence
It’s a look that glided all the way to the epicenter of mainstream fashion in 2025 propelled by a chart-topping superstar. Earlier this year, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The bedazzled bra and thong, plumed armbands and sparkly headpiece were perfect for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
She isn't alone. This year, showgirl inspirations have been adopted by pop stars including Dua Lipa as they whizzed across concert platforms in sequins, revealing designs and plumes, illuminated against theatrical sets. A top stylist her creative director explained to a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the mid-century, Lipa’s dancers wafted giant plumed accessories.
Pulling from the Past
Lipa, Carpenter and other successful musicians also draw on classic entertainment forms, including vaudeville and dance line references. The results are poles apart from the 90s teen pop of short shirts and utilitarian trousers, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that came before them.
But some critics are convinced with this showgirl renaissance. An ex-showgirl, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the early 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “treated as an umbrella term encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly modern pop stars.”
The Coveted Classic Look
For younger and modern stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become incredibly sought-after. In 2024, a famous actress honored to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the star wore a see-through sequined dress created by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, a singer paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn at an awards show to perform at the Grammys. In September, Sabrina Carpenter wore a series of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among collectors.
“The showgirl aesthetic evoke nostalgia for a bygone era of glitz,” says Su Kim Chung, a curator at the a Las Vegas university, who researches the legacy of showgirls. “Now it is viewed as a sort of ‘acceptable’ appeal because it has been modified. It has got all the sophistication, the rhinestones and the sparkle but without the bare skin.”
More Than Simply Style: An Icon of Las Vegas
The expert says this figure are central to the identity of Vegas. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was accompanied by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-based productions, Chung says they are still featured as an logo of the city, being present at gatherings and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a lasting symbol of Las Vegas glitz and glamour,” the expert says.
An Appeal of Transformation
Nancy Hardy says the transformative effect of a showgirl persona is part of the appeal. It’s something Swift references in a latest documentary series that captures the backstage action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included intense rehearsals, gym sessions and 149 shows across multiple nations, each running for 3.5 hours.
Hardy describes her own nights in the spotlight as “similar to extreme physical exertion in high heels every night”. Her feathered headdress was 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the steps to the stage from the backstage area three floors below in the lower level. I had to start early for my cue so I could recover before I made my entrance. You are perspiring the whole time but maintaining this fantasy that it’s easy and gorgeous and magical.”
It could be this is where the appeal of the showgirl really resides. In the busyness of 2025 there is a craving for fantasy. What better figure to look to than such icons, who have always embodied dreams, idealism and a realm where nobody falters.
