Following a 31-year tenure on the iconic Vegas strip, the dancers from the revue Jubilee! executed their last choreographed kick in 2016. The show, famous for its ornate costumes created by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to dwindling audience numbers and disappointed critics who labeled it a spectacle “trapped in time”.
Today, almost a decade later, the showgirl persona, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is experiencing a revival.
A Sultan of Glitz
Referred to as the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made dramatic stage sparkle his defining aesthetic, dressing everyone from screen legends to Madonna. Earlier this month, a “see-through” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, far exceeding its initial estimate, while a metallic tasseled bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more attractive for the emerging artists who is looking for something other than what they grew up with”, he told a newspaper. “Contemporary performers are pushing toward a theatrical, more theatrical, show-stopping, entrance-making statement.”
A Musical Resurgence
It’s a look that glided all the way to the heart of popular culture in 2025 propelled by a global pop icon. 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 bedazzled bra and thong, plumed armbands and glittering headpiece were ideal for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer has company. This year, glamorous nods have been adopted by music artists including Sabrina Carpenter as they whizzed across world tours in sequins, revealing designs and ostrich feathers, highlighted against camp sets. A top stylist Lorenzo Posocco explained to Vogue he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the mid-century, Lipa’s dancers waved giant feathered fans.
Drawing from Tradition
Lipa, Carpenter and other chart toppers also reference classic performances, including classic theater and dance line references. The outcome are vastly different from the 90s Britney Spears era of short shirts and utilitarian trousers, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that preceded this trend.
But some critics are enthusiastic with this showgirl renaissance. A former performer, a ex- Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the 00s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word term is being “employed as an broad label including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently today's icons.”
The Highly Sought-After Vintage Style
For gen Z and young adult stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a style icon honored to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the actor wore a semi-sheer embellished dress made by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, another pop star paid an private amount to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn at an awards show 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 hit among fashion collectors.
“Showgirls evoke a sense of longing for a past glamour,” says a historian, a curator at the an academic institution, who studies the legacy of showgirls. “Now it is considered a sort of ‘acceptable’ sexy because it has been modified. It has got all the elegance, the rhinestones and the glitter but without the bare skin.”
More Than Just Style: An Icon of the City
She says this figure are integral to the imagery of Las Vegas. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was flanked by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas no longer has any traditional showgirl productions, the historian says they are still used as an logo of the city, showing up at corporate events and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a remaining icon of Las Vegas spectacle,” Chung says.
An Appeal of Illusion
The former showgirl says the transformative effect of a stage character is part of the appeal. This is a notion Taylor Swift references in a new behind-the-scenes film that shows the off-camera action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting practice sessions, gym sessions and countless shows across dozens of cities, each running for 3.5 hours.
The performer describes her own nights in the spotlight as “similar to completing an endurance race in heels every night”. Her headdress was 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the stairs to the stage from the green rooms three floors below in the basement. I had to start early for my moment so I could recover before I made my entrance. One is sweating the whole time but maintaining this image that it’s effortless and stunning and magical.”
Maybe this is where the appeal of the showgirl fantasy really is found. In the busyness of 2025 there is a craving for a break from reality. Who better to look to than such icons, who have always personified fantasy, flawlessness and a world where nobody misses a mark.
