After a long-running tenure on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the dancers from the revue Jubilee! gave one last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The production, famous for its intricate costumes created by style icon Bob Mackie, came to an end due to dwindling audience numbers and critical commentators who called it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Currently, roughly eight years later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl style, is making a comeback.
A Sultan of Sparkle
Known as the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glamour his signature style, dressing everyone from screen legends to music superstars. In a recent auction, a “barely-there” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, well over its initial estimate, while a shimmering fringed 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 knew from childhood”, he stated in an interview with a publication. “Today's artists are striving for a theatrical, more theatrical, breathtaking, entrance-making statement.”
A Musical Comeback
It’s a look that glided all the way to the epicenter of mainstream fashion in 2025 largely due to a global pop icon. Recently, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The crystal-covered bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and sparkly headpiece were perfect for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
She isn't alone. This year, showgirl inspirations have been embraced by pop stars including Sabrina Carpenter as they zoomed across arena stages in sequins, cut-outs and plumes, highlighted against overstated sets. Lipa’s stylist a fashion expert mentioned in an interview with Vogue he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the 50s, the backup dancers waved giant feathered fans.
Drawing from Tradition
Lipa, Carpenter and other hitmakers also draw on classic performances, including classic theater and chorus line references. The outcome are worlds away from the 1990s era pop style of revealing tops and baggy pants, and urban dance moves that came before them.
But not everyone are convinced with this glamour resurgence. A former performer, a ex- Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the early 2000s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “treated as an catch-all phrase covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly today's icons.”
A Coveted Retro Style
For gen Z and millennial stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become incredibly sought-after. In 2024, a style icon honored to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the actor wore a see-through sequined dress created by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, Miley Cyrus paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn earlier in the year to perform at the Grammys. In September, the singer wore a collection of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among vintage enthusiasts.
“Showgirls evoke a sense of longing for a past glamour,” says a historian, an expert at the an academic institution, who researches the legacy of showgirls. “Currently it is considered a sort of ‘safe’ sexy because it has been adapted. It has got all the glamour, the rhinestones and the sparkle but without the bare skin.”
A Than Just Fashion: An Symbol of Las Vegas
She says this figure are key to the identity of Las Vegas. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was accompanied by two showgirls. While Las Vegas does not host any showgirl-based productions, Chung says they are still used as an logo of the city, appearing at conventions and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a remaining figure of Las Vegas spectacle,” the expert says.
An Appeal of Illusion
The former showgirl says the complete change of a showgirl is part of the allure. It’s something Taylor Swift hints at in a latest documentary series that captures the behind-the-scenes action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting practice sessions, gym sessions and 149 shows across 21 countries, each running for 3.5 hours.
She explains her own stage routines as “like completing an endurance race in high heels every night”. Her headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the staircase to the stage from the dressing rooms three floors below in the underground. I had to head up ahead of time for my entrance so I could rest before I performed. One is working hard the whole time but maintaining this image that it’s effortless and gorgeous and dreamlike.”
It could be this is where the fascination of the showgirl really is found. In the complexity of 2025 there is a craving for escapism. Who better to turn to than showgirls, who have always embodied fantasy, flawlessness and a realm where no one falters.
