After a 31-year stint on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the performers from the spectacle Jubilee! executed their last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The production, renowned for its intricate costumes created by style icon Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to declining audience numbers and unimpressed reviewers who labeled it a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Currently, almost a decade later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl style, is making a comeback.
The Master of Sparkle
Known as the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made dramatic stage sparkle his signature style, clothing everyone from Hollywood icons to Madonna. In a recent auction, a “naked” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, well over its initial estimate, while a silver and gold beaded bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more enticing for the emerging artists who is seeking something other than what they grew up with”, he explained to a media outlet. “Today's artists are pushing toward a glamorous, more spectacular, breathtaking, grand statement.”
The Mainstream Revival
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the heart of popular culture in 2025 largely due to a global pop icon. Recently, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The bedazzled bra and thong, plumed armbands and sparkly headpiece were ideal for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer isn't alone. This year, showgirl references have been adopted by singers including Miley Cyrus as they zoomed across arena stages in sparkles, cut-outs and feathers, highlighted against overstated sets. Lipa’s stylist Lorenzo Posocco told a style publication he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the 1950s, the backup dancers wafted giant feathered fans.
Pulling from Tradition
Lipa, Carpenter and other hitmakers also reference 19th-century entertainment forms, including vaudeville and ensemble references. The final look are poles apart from the late-century teen pop of short shirts and utilitarian trousers, and urban dance moves that preceded this trend.
But certain observers are on board with this glamour resurgence. An ex-showgirl, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the early 2000s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “treated as an broad label covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly modern pop stars.”
The Highly Sought-After Retro Style
For millennial and young adult stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, Zendaya honored to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the actress wore a translucent sequined dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, a singer paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn previously to perform at the Grammys. In September, the singer wore a collection of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a favorite among fashion collectors.
“This style evoke a sense of longing for a historical elegance,” says an archivist, a curator at the a Las Vegas university, who researches the legacy of showgirls. “Today it is considered a sort of ‘acceptable’ sexy because it has been modified. It has got all the sophistication, the rhinestones and the glitter but without the exposure.”
A Than Simply Style: An Icon of Vegas
Chung says the showgirl image are integral to the imagery of Las Vegas. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was flanked by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-centric productions, the historian says they are still featured as an logo of the city, showing up at gatherings and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a remaining figure of Las Vegas glitz and glamour,” Chung says.
An Appeal of Transformation
Hardy says the transformative effect of a stage character is part of the appeal. This idea Taylor Swift alludes to in a latest documentary series that documents the backstage action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included intense practice sessions, training and 149 shows across dozens of cities, each lasting 3.5 hours.
Hardy describes her own nights in the spotlight as “comparable to extreme physical exertion in heels every night”. Her feathered headdress was 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the stairs to the stage from the dressing rooms three floors below in the lower level. I had to leave early for my cue so I could catch my breath before I made my entrance. You’re sweating the whole time but maintaining this image that it’s effortless and gorgeous and magical.”
It could be this is where the appeal of the showgirl fantasy really resides. In the chaos of 2025 there is a craving for escapism. Who better to look to than these performers, who have always personified make-believe, idealism and a realm where nobody makes a mistake.
