Following a 31-year stint on the iconic Vegas strip, the performers from the spectacle Jubilee! took a final perfectly timed kick in 2016. The extravaganza, renowned for its ornate costumes designed by style icon Bob Mackie, ended its run due to falling audience numbers and unimpressed reviewers who called it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Today, nearly ten years later, the showgirl, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is experiencing a revival.
The Sultan of Sparkle
Known as the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glitz his trademark look, clothing everyone from Marilyn Monroe to music superstars. In a recent auction, a “naked” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, well over its initial estimate, while a metallic beaded bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more attractive for the emerging artists who is looking for something other than what they knew from childhood”, he stated in an interview with a media outlet. “New stars are embracing a show-stopping, more spectacular, breathtaking, entrance-making statement.”
A Pop Culture Comeback
It’s a look that glided all the way to the epicenter of popular culture in 2025 propelled by a global pop icon. Recently, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The bedazzled bra and thong, plumed armbands and sparkly headpiece were tailor-made for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
She isn't alone. This year, showgirl inspirations have been incorporated by music artists including Dua Lipa as they whizzed across arena stages in sequins, revealing designs and feathers, highlighted against camp sets. A top stylist Lorenzo Posocco told a style publication he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the mid-century, her performers wafted giant plumed accessories.
Drawing from History
Lipa, Carpenter and other hitmakers also reference historical entertainment forms, including classic theater and ensemble references. The outcome are worlds away from the 90s teen pop of crop tops and cargo pants, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that came before them.
But some critics are on board with this glamour resurgence. Nancy Hardy, a former Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word term is being “employed as an umbrella term covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even modern pop stars.”
A Coveted Retro Style
For millennial and millennial stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become incredibly sought-after. In 2024, a famous actress gave a nod to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the actress wore a semi-sheer sequined dress created by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, a singer 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 retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a favorite among collectors.
“This style inspire a sense of longing for a bygone era of glitz,” says a historian, an expert at the a Las Vegas university, who researches the history of showgirls. “Now it is considered a sort of ‘acceptable’ sexy because it has been modified. It has got all the glamour, the rhinestones and the glitter but without the exposure.”
A Than Simply Fashion: An Symbol of the City
The expert says showgirls are central to the imagery of Sin City. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was surrounded by two showgirls. While Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-centric productions, Jung says they are still featured as an logo of the city, being present at gatherings and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a enduring figure of Vegas spectacle,” Chung says.
The Appeal of Transformation
Hardy says the magical transformation of a stage character is part of the appeal. This is a notion the singer hints at in a latest docuseries that documents the backstage action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling preparations, training and numerous shows across dozens of cities, each going on for 3.5 hours.
Hardy recalls her own stage routines as “comparable to running a marathon in stilettos every night”. Her headdress tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the steps to the performance area from the backstage area three floors below in the underground. I had to head up ahead of time for my moment so I could catch my breath before I made my entrance. One is sweating the whole time but maintaining this illusion that it’s effortless and gorgeous and magical.”
Perhaps this is where the true allure of the showgirl fantasy really resides. In the busyness of 2025 there is a craving for fantasy. What better figure to look to than showgirls, who have always embodied fantasy, idealism and a universe where no one misses a mark.