After a long-running tenure on the Las Vegas strip, the dancers from the revue Jubilee! executed their last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The production, famous for its elaborate costumes created by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to falling audience numbers and critical critics who called it a spectacle “trapped in time”.
Now, almost a decade later, the showgirl, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is back.
The King of Sequins
Referred to as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glitz his trademark look, clothing everyone from screen legends to pop royalty. Earlier this month, a “barely-there” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, well over its estimated price, while a metallic tasseled bodysuit with reflective 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 seeking something other than what they grew up with”, he told a media outlet. “New stars are pushing toward a glamorous, more dramatic, attention-grabbing, entrance-making statement.”
The Pop Culture Comeback
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the heart of mainstream fashion in 2025 propelled by a chart-topping superstar. In the past few months, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and glittering headpiece were ideal for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer has company. This year, showgirl inspirations have been adopted by pop stars including Dua Lipa as they whizzed across concert platforms in glitter, strategic openings and feathers, highlighted against theatrical sets. Lipa’s stylist her creative director told Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the mid-century, her performers waved giant plumed accessories.
Drawing from History
Lipa, Carpenter and other successful musicians also draw on historical entertainment forms, including burlesque and chorus line references. The final look are worlds away from the late-century pop style of short shirts and baggy pants, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that came before them.
But certain observers are convinced with this glamour resurgence. A former performer, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the 00s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “employed as an umbrella term including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly modern pop stars.”
The Coveted Classic Look
For younger and modern stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a style icon gave a nod to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actor wore a translucent beaded dress created by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, a singer paid an significant price to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn earlier in the year 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 collectors.
“The showgirl aesthetic evoke a sense of longing for a historical elegance,” says an archivist, an expert at the a Las Vegas university, who documents the story of showgirls. “Today it is seen as a sort of ‘acceptable’ appeal because it has been modified. It has got all the glamour, the sparkles and the glitter but without the exposure.”
A Than Just Fashion: An Symbol of the City
The expert says this figure are central to the iconography of Sin City. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was flanked by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas does not host any showgirl-based productions, Chung says they are still used as an logo of the city, showing up at corporate events and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a remaining icon of Vegas glitz and glamour,” she says.
The Appeal of Illusion
Nancy Hardy says the magical transformation of a showgirl is part of the allure. It’s something the singer references in a recent docuseries that documents the backstage action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included intense practice sessions, training and 149 performances across multiple nations, each lasting 3.5 hours.
She explains her own showgirl performances as “similar to extreme physical exertion in stilettos every night”. Her headdress tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the stairs to the platform from the dressing rooms three floors below in the basement. I had to head up ahead of time for my entrance so I could rest before I made my entrance. One is sweating the whole time but creating this fantasy that it’s effortless and gorgeous and magical.”
Maybe this is where the true allure of the showgirl really lies. In the chaos of 2025 there is a craving for escapism. Who better to look to than showgirls, who have always represented make-believe, idealism and a world where nobody makes a mistake.
