After a long-running stint on the iconic Vegas strip, the showgirls from the revue Jubilee! executed their last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The show, renowned for its ornate costumes created by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, ended its run due to falling audience numbers and critical critics who described it as a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Now, roughly eight years later, showgirls, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is making a comeback.
The Master of Glitz
Referred to as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made over-the-top showgirl glitz his defining aesthetic, dressing everyone from screen legends to pop royalty. Earlier this month, a “see-through” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, seven times its projected value, while a silver and gold beaded bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more attractive for the younger performer who is seeking something other than what they knew from childhood”, he explained to a media outlet. “Contemporary performers are embracing a glamorous, more dramatic, attention-grabbing, entrance-making statement.”
A Pop Culture Comeback
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the epicenter of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 propelled by a global pop icon. In the past few months, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The crystal-covered bra and thong, plumed armbands and glittering headpiece were ideal for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.
She has company. This year, showgirl references have been adopted by singers including Sabrina Carpenter as they whizzed across world tours in sequins, revealing designs and ostrich feathers, spotlighted against overstated sets. A top stylist 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 1950s, Lipa’s dancers wafted giant feathered fans.
Drawing from the Past
Lipa, Carpenter and other successful musicians also take inspiration from 19th-century performances, including vaudeville and ensemble references. The outcome are worlds away from the 90s teen pop of revealing tops and baggy pants, and street-style dance moves that came before them.
But not everyone are on board with this showgirl renaissance. An ex-showgirl, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the 00s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “employed as an umbrella term encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly modern pop stars.”
A Highly Sought-After Vintage Style
For millennial and young adult stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become incredibly sought-after. In 2024, a style icon honored to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the star wore a semi-sheer beaded dress made by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, a singer paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn earlier in the year to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a collection of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among collectors.
“Showgirls evoke nostalgia for a historical elegance,” says a historian, head of special collections at the an academic institution, who documents the story of showgirls. “Currently it is considered a sort of ‘acceptable’ allure because it has been updated. It has got all the elegance, the rhinestones and the shine but without the exposure.”
A Than Simply Style: An Icon of Vegas
She says showgirls are key to the imagery of Vegas. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was flanked by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-centric productions, Jung says they are still featured as an symbol of the city, appearing at corporate events and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a remaining figure of Las Vegas glamour,” she says.
An Appeal of Transformation
Hardy says the complete change of a showgirl is part of the appeal. This idea Taylor Swift references in a new docuseries that captures the behind-the-scenes action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included intense practice sessions, workouts and numerous concerts across dozens of cities, each running for 3.5 hours.
Hardy describes her own nights in the spotlight as “similar to completing an endurance race in high heels every night”. Her headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the stairs to the platform from the backstage area three floors below in the underground. I had to leave early for my entrance so I could recover before I went on stage. One is perspiring the whole time but maintaining this fantasy that it’s easy and gorgeous and dreamlike.”
It could be this is where the appeal of the showgirl really lies. In the complexity of 2025 there is a craving for fantasy. What better figure to emulate than these performers, who have always represented make-believe, flawlessness and a realm where nobody falters.
