After a three-decade tenure on the Las Vegas strip, the dancers from the spectacle Jubilee! executed their last synchronised kick in 2016. The extravaganza, renowned for its ornate costumes crafted by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to dwindling audience numbers and unimpressed critics who labeled it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Currently, nearly ten years later, the showgirl, or at least the showgirl style, is making a comeback.
The King of Glitz
Dubbed the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made theatrical showgirl glamour his defining aesthetic, outfitting everyone from Hollywood icons to music superstars. Earlier this month, a “see-through” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, seven times its initial estimate, while a silver and gold tasseled bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more appealing for the emerging artists who is desiring something other than what they were accustomed to”, he explained to a newspaper. “New stars are striving for a show-stopping, more spectacular, show-stopping, entrance-making statement.”
The Pop Culture Resurgence
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the epicenter of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 propelled by a chart-topping superstar. In the past few months, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and shimmering headpiece were tailor-made for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.
She has company. This year, glamorous nods have been incorporated by singers including Dua Lipa as they whizzed across concert platforms in glitter, strategic openings and feathers, illuminated against theatrical sets. A top stylist her creative director mentioned in an interview with a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the mid-century, her performers waved giant feathered fans.
Pulling from the Past
These artists and other hitmakers also draw on historical performances, including vaudeville and dance line references. The results are poles apart from the 90s teen pop of revealing tops and utilitarian trousers, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that preceded this trend.
But not everyone are on board with this showgirl revival. A former performer, a former Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the 00s 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 even today's icons.”
A Highly Sought-After Retro Style
For gen Z and modern stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a famous actress gave a nod to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the actress wore a translucent beaded dress created by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, Miley Cyrus paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie beaded 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 popular item among vintage enthusiasts.
“This style inspire nostalgia for a past glamour,” says a historian, an expert at the a Las Vegas university, who documents the legacy of showgirls. “Now it is viewed as a sort of ‘toned-down’ allure because it has been adapted. It has got all the elegance, the rhinestones and the shine but without the nudity.”
A Than Simply Fashion: An Symbol of Las Vegas
She says the showgirl image are central to the imagery of Las Vegas. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was accompanied by two showgirls. While Las Vegas does not host any showgirl-based productions, the historian says they are still used as an emblem of the city, being present at conventions and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a enduring icon of Vegas glamour,” the expert says.
An Allure of Escape
Nancy Hardy says the magical transformation of a showgirl is part of the appeal. This idea the singer references in a recent behind-the-scenes film that documents the off-camera action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling preparations, gym sessions and numerous performances across dozens of cities, each running for 3.5 hours.
She explains her own showgirl performances as “similar to completing an endurance race in heels every night”. Her headpiece was 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the stairs to the platform 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 went on stage. You are perspiring the whole time but creating this illusion that it’s simple and gorgeous and ethereal.”
Maybe this is where the true allure of the showgirl really lies. In the chaos of 2025 there is a craving for escapism. Who better to look to than these performers, who have always represented fantasy, perfection and a world where no one misses a mark.
