Following a 31-year run on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the showgirls from the production Jubilee! gave one last synchronised kick in 2016. The show, famous for its intricate costumes created by style icon Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to dwindling audience numbers and unimpressed commentators who described it as a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Currently, almost a decade later, the showgirl persona, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is back.
The Master of Glitz
Referred to as the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made over-the-top showgirl glitz his trademark look, dressing everyone from screen legends to music superstars. Earlier this month, a “see-through” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, seven times its estimated price, while a silver and gold fringed bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more enticing for the younger performer who is looking for something other than what they knew from childhood”, he stated in an interview with a newspaper. “New stars are embracing a theatrical, more dramatic, attention-grabbing, entrance-making statement.”
The Musical Comeback
It’s a look that glided all the way to the heart of popular culture in 2025 thanks to a global pop icon. Recently, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, feathered armbands and sparkly headpiece were perfect for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
She isn't alone. This year, showgirl references have been incorporated by singers including Sabrina Carpenter as they whizzed across world tours in sequins, cut-outs and plumes, spotlighted against overstated sets. Her fashion curator Lorenzo Posocco told a style publication he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the mid-century, the backup dancers fluttered giant plumed accessories.
Pulling from History
Lipa, Carpenter and other chart toppers also take inspiration from historical performances, including classic theater and ensemble references. The outcome are vastly different from the late-century pop style of revealing tops and utilitarian trousers, and urban dance moves that preceded this trend.
But some critics are enthusiastic with this glamour resurgence. A former performer, a ex- Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the early 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “treated as an umbrella term covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly today's icons.”
The Highly Sought-After Vintage Look
For millennial and modern stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become incredibly sought-after. In 2024, a famous actress gave a nod to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, 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. Months after, Miley Cyrus paid an significant price 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 trio of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among fashion collectors.
“The showgirl aesthetic inspire nostalgia for a bygone era of glitz,” says Su Kim Chung, a curator at the a Las Vegas university, who documents the story of showgirls. “Today it is considered a sort of ‘acceptable’ appeal because it has been adapted. It has got all the glamour, the crystals and the glitter but without the nudity.”
A Than Simply Style: An Icon of the City
Chung says this figure are integral to the iconography of Sin City. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was surrounded by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas no longer has any traditional showgirl productions, the historian says they are still employed as an emblem of the city, showing up at conventions and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a enduring icon of Las Vegas glamour,” she says.
The Appeal of Illusion
The former showgirl says the magical transformation of a showgirl is part of the attraction. This is a notion Taylor Swift references in a recent documentary series that captures the backstage action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting preparations, training and numerous shows across dozens of cities, each running for 3.5 hours.
Hardy recalls her own nights in the spotlight as “similar to completing an endurance race in high heels every night”. Her headdress was 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the stairs to the stage from the dressing rooms three floors below in the basement. I had to start early for my moment so I could recover before I made my entrance. You are perspiring the whole time but creating this image that it’s simple and gorgeous and magical.”
It could be this is where the fascination of the showgirl really resides. In the busyness of 2025 there is a desire for fantasy. What better figure to turn to than such icons, who have always personified fantasy, flawlessness and a world where nobody makes a mistake.
