After a long-running stint on the Las Vegas strip, the dancers from the production Jubilee! took a final choreographed kick in 2016. The show, known for its elaborate costumes crafted by style icon Bob Mackie, came to an end due to falling audience numbers and disappointed critics who described it as a spectacle “trapped in time”.
Currently, nearly ten years later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is making a comeback.
The King of Sparkle
Known as the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made over-the-top showgirl glitz his signature style, outfitting everyone from screen legends to music superstars. In a recent auction, a “naked” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, well over its estimated price, while a silver and gold beaded bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more appealing for the emerging artists who is looking for something other than what they grew up with”, he explained to a media outlet. “Contemporary performers are embracing a theatrical, more spectacular, breathtaking, grand statement.”
A Pop Culture Comeback
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the epicenter of popular culture in 2025 largely due to a global pop icon. Earlier this year, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and sparkly headpiece were perfect for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer is part of a trend. This year, glamorous nods have been embraced by singers including Dua Lipa as they zoomed across concert platforms in glitter, cut-outs and plumes, illuminated against camp sets. Lipa’s stylist her creative director told a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the mid-century, her performers fluttered giant feathered fans.
Pulling from the Past
These artists and other chart toppers also draw on 19th-century entertainment forms, including vaudeville and chorus line references. The outcome are poles apart from the 1990s era Britney Spears era of revealing tops and baggy pants, and urban dance moves that were popular earlier.
But certain observers are enthusiastic with this glamour resurgence. A former performer, a former Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the early 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “treated as an broad label covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even modern pop stars.”
The Highly Sought-After Retro Style
For gen Z and young adult stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become incredibly sought-after. In 2024, Zendaya paid tribute to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the actor wore a semi-sheer sequined dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, another pop star paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie fringed 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 favorite among vintage enthusiasts.
“Showgirls bring about nostalgia for a historical elegance,” says Su Kim Chung, an expert at the University of Nevada, who studies the legacy of showgirls. “Now it is considered a sort of ‘acceptable’ sexy because it has been updated. It has got all the sophistication, the sparkles and the glitter but without the bare skin.”
A Than Just Style: An Icon of the City
She says the showgirl image are integral to the identity of Sin City. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was flanked by two showgirls. While Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-based productions, Chung says they are still used as an logo of the city, showing up at corporate events and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a enduring icon of Las Vegas glitz and glamour,” the expert says.
An Allure of Escape
The former showgirl says the complete change of a stage character is part of the allure. This is a notion Taylor Swift alludes to in a latest behind-the-scenes film that shows the behind-the-scenes action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included intense preparations, workouts and 149 performances across dozens of cities, each running for 3.5 hours.
Hardy recalls her own stage routines as “comparable to extreme physical exertion in high heels every night”. Her headpiece tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the staircase to the platform from the backstage area three floors below in the lower level. I had to leave early for my moment so I could catch my breath before I went on stage. You are perspiring the whole time but maintaining this fantasy that it’s simple and gorgeous and magical.”
Maybe this is where the true allure of the showgirl really resides. In the busyness of 2025 there is a longing for a break from reality. What better figure to emulate than such icons, who have always personified fantasy, perfection and a realm where nobody makes a mistake.
