After a 31-year run on the Las Vegas strip, the showgirls from the production Jubilee! gave one last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The show, renowned for its intricate costumes created by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, came to an end due to dwindling audience numbers and disappointed reviewers who labeled it a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Currently, nearly ten years later, the showgirl persona, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is making a comeback.
A King of Glitz
Referred to as the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made over-the-top stage sparkle his defining aesthetic, dressing everyone from screen legends to Madonna. In a recent auction, a “see-through” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, seven times its initial estimate, while a metallic beaded bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more attractive for the younger performer who is desiring something other than what they grew up with”, he explained to a newspaper. “New stars are embracing a glamorous, more theatrical, show-stopping, entrance-making statement.”
The Pop Culture Comeback
It’s a look that glided all the way to the heart of popular culture in 2025 propelled by a chart-topping superstar. In the past few months, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The bedazzled bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and shimmering headpiece were perfect for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.
She has company. This year, showgirl inspirations have been incorporated by pop stars including Miley Cyrus as they whizzed across arena stages in sparkles, revealing designs and plumes, illuminated against theatrical sets. Her fashion curator 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, the backup dancers wafted giant feathered fans.
Drawing from Tradition
Lipa, Carpenter and other chart toppers also take inspiration from 19th-century performances, including burlesque and dance line references. The outcome are vastly different from the 1990s era teen pop of revealing tops and utilitarian trousers, and urban dance moves that preceded this trend.
But some critics are on board with this showgirl revival. Nancy Hardy, a former Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the 00s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “employed as an broad label covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even today's icons.”
A Highly Sought-After Retro Style
For younger and young adult stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a style icon paid tribute to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the star wore a translucent embellished dress created by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, Miley Cyrus paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn previously to perform at the Grammys. In September, Sabrina Carpenter wore a series of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among collectors.
“The showgirl aesthetic inspire fond memories for a historical elegance,” says a historian, a curator at the a Las Vegas university, who documents the story of showgirls. “Today it is seen as a sort of ‘safe’ sexy because it has been updated. It has got all the sophistication, the rhinestones and the glitter but without the bare skin.”
A Than Just Fashion: An Icon of the City
Chung says the showgirl image are integral to the identity of Las Vegas. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was surrounded by two showgirls. While Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-centric productions, Chung says they are still featured as an logo of the city, being present at gatherings and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a remaining figure of Las Vegas glamour,” she says.
The Allure of Illusion
The former showgirl says the transformative effect of a stage character is part of the allure. It’s something Taylor Swift hints at in a new docuseries that shows the off-camera action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included intense practice sessions, gym sessions and numerous performances across dozens of cities, each running for 3.5 hours.
She recalls her own showgirl performances as “comparable to running a marathon in heels every night”. Her headpiece weighed 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the stairs to the platform from the green rooms three floors below in the basement. I had to head up ahead of time for my moment so I could catch my breath before I made my entrance. One is perspiring the whole time but maintaining this fantasy that it’s effortless and stunning and dreamlike.”
Maybe this is where the fascination of the showgirl fantasy really resides. In the complexity of 2025 there is a desire for escapism. Who better to look to than these performers, who have always embodied make-believe, perfection and a universe where no one falters.
