Following a 31-year run on the Las Vegas strip, the dancers from the production Jubilee! executed their last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The show, famous for its ornate costumes designed by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, came to an end due to dwindling audience numbers and unimpressed reviewers who labeled it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Now, roughly eight years later, the showgirl persona, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is experiencing a revival.
The Sultan of Sparkle
Referred to as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made theatrical showgirl glamour his signature style, clothing everyone from Marilyn Monroe to music superstars. Earlier this month, a “barely-there” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, far exceeding its projected value, while a silver and gold fringed bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more appealing for the new generation of stars who is looking for something other than what they were accustomed to”, he told a newspaper. “Contemporary performers are striving for a glamorous, more spectacular, breathtaking, entrance-making statement.”
A Musical Comeback
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the epicenter of popular culture in 2025 propelled by a chart-topping superstar. Recently, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, plumed armbands and glittering headpiece were perfect for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer has company. This year, glamorous nods have been incorporated by pop stars including Dua Lipa as they danced across arena stages in sparkles, revealing designs and plumes, spotlighted against overstated sets. Lipa’s stylist Lorenzo Posocco mentioned in an interview with Vogue he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the 50s, the backup dancers wafted giant plumed accessories.
Pulling from the Past
Lipa, Carpenter and other successful musicians also reference historical entertainment forms, including vaudeville and dance line references. The final look are poles apart from the late-century Britney Spears era of revealing tops and utilitarian trousers, and street-style dance moves that preceded this trend.
But certain observers are enthusiastic with this showgirl revival. An ex-showgirl, a ex- Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the early 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “used as an umbrella term covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even today's icons.”
The Highly Sought-After Retro Look
For millennial and millennial stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a style icon honored to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actor wore a semi-sheer embellished dress made by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, another pop star paid an significant price to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn earlier in the year to perform at the Grammys. In September, the singer wore a series of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a favorite among collectors.
“Showgirls inspire fond memories for a bygone era of glitz,” says a historian, head of special collections at the an academic institution, who studies the legacy of showgirls. “Now it is viewed as a sort of ‘safe’ appeal because it has been modified. It has got all the sophistication, the sparkles and the glitter but without the nudity.”
More Than Just Fashion: An Icon of Vegas
She says this figure are integral to the iconography of Vegas. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was accompanied by two showgirls. While Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-based productions, Jung says they are still used as an emblem of the city, appearing at gatherings and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a remaining figure of Las Vegas glitz and glamour,” the expert says.
The Allure of Illusion
The former showgirl says the transformative effect of a stage character is part of the attraction. This is a notion Taylor Swift references in a new docuseries that captures the backstage action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included intense preparations, gym sessions and numerous concerts across multiple nations, each running for 3.5 hours.
The performer recalls her own showgirl performances as “similar to running a marathon in high heels every night”. Her headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the steps to the platform from the backstage area three floors below in the lower level. I had to start early for my entrance so I could catch my breath before I went on stage. You’re working hard the whole time but creating this fantasy that it’s effortless and beautiful and magical.”
It could be this is where the appeal of the showgirl really resides. In the chaos of 2025 there is a longing for fantasy. Is there anyone better to look to than these performers, who have always represented fantasy, flawlessness and a world where no one makes a mistake.