Following a long-running run on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the dancers from the spectacle Jubilee! executed their last synchronised kick in 2016. The show, renowned for its elaborate costumes crafted by style icon Bob Mackie, ended its run due to declining audience numbers and unimpressed critics who described it as a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Currently, roughly eight years later, the showgirl persona, or at least the showgirl style, is back.
A Master of Sequins
Dubbed the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glitz his trademark look, dressing everyone from Hollywood icons to pop royalty. Earlier this month, a “naked” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, far exceeding its initial estimate, while a metallic tasseled bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more attractive for the emerging artists who is desiring something other than what they grew up with”, he told a media outlet. “Contemporary performers are embracing a theatrical, more spectacular, breathtaking, memorable statement.”
The Mainstream Resurgence
It’s a look that glided all the way to the heart of popular culture in 2025 thanks to a chart-topping superstar. Earlier this year, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and glittering headpiece were tailor-made for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer is part of a trend. This year, glamorous nods have been incorporated by music artists including Sabrina Carpenter as they danced across concert platforms in sequins, revealing designs and ostrich feathers, illuminated against theatrical sets. Her fashion curator her creative director mentioned in an interview with a style publication he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the mid-century, Lipa’s dancers fluttered giant ostrich feather fans.
Drawing from History
Modern stars and other hitmakers also take inspiration from classic entertainment forms, including classic theater and dance line references. The final look are poles apart from the 90s pop style of revealing tops and cargo pants, and urban dance moves that preceded this trend.
But some critics are on board with this showgirl revival. Nancy Hardy, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the 00s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “used as an umbrella term including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even today's icons.”
A Coveted 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 first major stars, Cher, when the star wore a see-through sequined dress made by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, a singer paid an significant price to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn at an awards show to perform at the Grammys. In September, Sabrina Carpenter wore a collection of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among vintage enthusiasts.
“Showgirls inspire nostalgia for a bygone era of glitz,” says Su Kim Chung, head of special collections at the a Las Vegas university, who studies the history of showgirls. “Currently it is seen as a sort of ‘safe’ sexy because it has been adapted. It has got all the elegance, the crystals and the sparkle but without the exposure.”
More Than Simply Fashion: An Icon of the City
She says this figure are central to the imagery of Vegas. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was surrounded by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-based productions, the historian says they are still featured as an logo of the city, showing up at gatherings and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a remaining figure of Vegas glamour,” the expert says.
The Allure of Escape
Hardy says the complete change of a stage character is part of the appeal. It’s something Taylor Swift references in a recent docuseries that shows the behind-the-scenes action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling rehearsals, workouts and 149 shows across multiple nations, each running for 3.5 hours.
She explains 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 carry it all the way up the steps to the performance area from the dressing rooms three floors below in the underground. I had to start early for my cue so I could recover before I went on stage. You are sweating the whole time but creating this fantasy that it’s effortless and stunning and magical.”
It could be this is where the appeal of the showgirl fantasy really resides. In the busyness of 2025 there is a craving for escapism. Who better to look to than such icons, who have always represented fantasy, perfection and a world where nobody misses a mark.
