Following a 31-year stint on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the dancers from the revue Jubilee! gave one last synchronised kick in 2016. The show, renowned for its intricate costumes crafted by style icon Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to dwindling audience numbers and unimpressed critics who described it as a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Currently, nearly ten years later, the showgirl persona, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is back.
A Master of Sparkle
Known as the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glitz 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 sold for $57,600, seven times its initial estimate, while a metallic beaded bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more enticing for the younger performer who is seeking something other than what they knew from childhood”, he explained to a publication. “New stars are striving for a show-stopping, more theatrical, attention-grabbing, memorable statement.”
The Mainstream Resurgence
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the epicenter of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 largely due to a chart-topping superstar. In the past few months, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, plumed armbands and sparkly headpiece were perfect for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
She is part of a trend. This year, showgirl inspirations have been incorporated by pop stars including Sabrina Carpenter as they danced across concert platforms in sequins, cut-outs and ostrich feathers, spotlighted against theatrical sets. A top stylist her creative director explained to a style publication he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the 50s, the backup dancers fluttered giant ostrich feather fans.
Drawing from History
Lipa, Carpenter and other chart toppers also take inspiration from 19th-century performances, including classic theater and dance line references. The final look are vastly different from the 1990s era teen pop of crop tops and cargo pants, and street-style dance moves that preceded this trend.
But not everyone are on board with this showgirl renaissance. Nancy Hardy, a ex- Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the 2000s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “used as an catch-all phrase including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently Taylor Swift.”
A Highly Sought-After Classic Look
For gen Z and young adult stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a style icon honored to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actress wore a translucent embellished dress created by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, a singer paid an significant price 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 vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among fashion collectors.
“This style evoke a sense of longing for a past glamour,” says Su Kim Chung, a curator at the an academic institution, who researches the history of showgirls. “Currently it is seen as a sort of ‘toned-down’ appeal because it has been modified. It has got all the elegance, the rhinestones and the glitter but without the exposure.”
More Than Just Fashion: An Icon of Las Vegas
Chung says showgirls are integral to the identity of Vegas. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was accompanied by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-centric productions, Jung says they are still employed as an logo of the city, appearing at gatherings and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a lasting icon of Las Vegas spectacle,” Chung says.
An Allure of Escape
The former showgirl says the complete change of a showgirl persona is part of the attraction. This is a notion the singer alludes to in a new documentary series that shows the off-camera action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included intense rehearsals, workouts and 149 performances across dozens of cities, each lasting 3.5 hours.
Hardy describes her own stage routines as “like running a marathon in stilettos every night”. Her feathered headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the steps to the performance area from the backstage area three floors below in the underground. I had to head up ahead of time for my entrance so I could recover before I performed. You are perspiring the whole time but maintaining this illusion that it’s simple and stunning and ethereal.”
Perhaps this is where the true allure of the showgirl fantasy really lies. In the busyness of 2025 there is a desire for escapism. What better figure to turn to than these performers, who have always represented make-believe, perfection and a world where nobody misses a mark.
