Following a three-decade tenure on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the performers from the spectacle Jubilee! gave one last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The production, known for its elaborate costumes crafted by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, ended its run due to declining audience numbers and disappointed commentators who called it a spectacle “trapped in time”.
Today, roughly eight years later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl style, is back.
The Sultan of Sparkle
Known as the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glamour his defining aesthetic, outfitting everyone from Marilyn Monroe to music superstars. Earlier this month, a “naked” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, well over its initial estimate, while a shimmering fringed bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more appealing for the younger performer who is seeking something other than what they were accustomed to”, he told a newspaper. “Contemporary performers are embracing a glamorous, more dramatic, attention-grabbing, entrance-making statement.”
The Musical Resurgence
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the centre of popular culture in 2025 largely due to a chart-topping superstar. In the past few months, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The crystal-covered bra and thong, feathered armbands and sparkly headpiece were perfect for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer is part of a trend. This year, showgirl inspirations have been incorporated by pop stars including Miley Cyrus as they zoomed across concert platforms in glitter, cut-outs and feathers, highlighted against camp sets. Lipa’s stylist her creative director mentioned in an interview with a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the mid-century, Lipa’s dancers waved giant plumed accessories.
Drawing from Tradition
Modern stars and other chart toppers also draw on 19th-century entertainment forms, including classic theater and chorus line references. The final look are worlds away from the 90s Britney Spears era of short shirts and utilitarian trousers, and street-style dance moves that were popular earlier.
But not everyone are on board 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 “employed as an catch-all phrase encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently modern pop stars.”
A Highly Sought-After Retro Look
For millennial and millennial stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become incredibly sought-after. In 2024, a style icon gave a nod to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actress wore a semi-sheer embellished dress made by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, another pop star 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, Carpenter wore a trio of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among fashion collectors.
“This style evoke nostalgia for a historical elegance,” says an archivist, an expert at the a Las Vegas university, who researches the story of showgirls. “Today it is considered a sort of ‘safe’ allure because it has been updated. It has got all the glamour, the crystals and the glitter but without the bare skin.”
More Than Just Fashion: An Icon of Las Vegas
Chung says showgirls are central to the iconography of Sin City. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was surrounded by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-based productions, Jung says they are still used as an emblem of the city, being present at gatherings and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a lasting symbol of Las Vegas spectacle,” the expert says.
The Appeal of Illusion
Nancy Hardy says the magical transformation of a showgirl is part of the attraction. This is a notion Swift references in a new documentary series that documents the off-camera action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting practice sessions, training and countless performances across dozens of cities, each running for 3.5 hours.
Hardy recalls her own nights in the spotlight as “similar to extreme physical exertion in stilettos every night”. Her headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the steps to the performance area from the backstage area three floors below in the lower level. I had to start early for my cue so I could rest before I made my entrance. One is perspiring the whole time but creating this fantasy that it’s easy and beautiful and dreamlike.”
It could be this is where the true allure of the showgirl fantasy really is found. In the busyness of 2025 there is a desire for escapism. Who better to emulate than showgirls, who have always embodied dreams, perfection and a world where no one makes a mistake.
