After a 31-year tenure on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the showgirls from the production Jubilee! took a final choreographed kick in 2016. The extravaganza, renowned for its ornate costumes created by style icon Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to dwindling audience numbers and unimpressed reviewers who described it as a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Currently, roughly eight years later, the showgirl persona, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is making a comeback.
The Sultan of Sequins
Referred to as the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made over-the-top showgirl glitz his signature style, outfitting everyone from Hollywood icons to music superstars. Earlier this month, a “naked” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, well over its initial estimate, while a shimmering fringed bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more enticing for the emerging artists who is desiring something other than what they grew up with”, he explained to a publication. “Today's artists are embracing a theatrical, more spectacular, show-stopping, grand statement.”
The Mainstream Comeback
It’s a look that glided all the way to the heart of mainstream fashion in 2025 thanks to a global pop icon. In the past few months, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and glittering headpiece were perfect for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
She isn't alone. This year, glamorous nods have been adopted by pop stars including Dua Lipa as they zoomed across arena stages in sparkles, revealing designs and plumes, highlighted against camp sets. Her fashion curator Lorenzo Posocco explained to Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the 1950s, Lipa’s dancers waved giant feathered fans.
Pulling from the Past
Lipa, Carpenter and other successful musicians also draw on classic entertainment forms, including classic theater and dance line references. The results are vastly different from the 1990s era Britney Spears era of revealing tops and utilitarian trousers, and urban dance moves that came before them.
But not everyone are enthusiastic with this showgirl revival. A former performer, a former Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the early 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word term is being “used as an umbrella term covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly modern pop stars.”
A Coveted Classic Style
For younger and modern stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a famous actress gave a nod to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the actress wore a semi-sheer sequined 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 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 fashion collectors.
“The showgirl aesthetic evoke fond memories for a bygone era of glitz,” says an archivist, head of special collections at the a Las Vegas university, who studies the legacy of showgirls. “Now it is considered a sort of ‘acceptable’ sexy because it has been updated. It has got all the sophistication, the sparkles and the sparkle but without the exposure.”
A Than Simply Fashion: An Icon of Las Vegas
She says the showgirl image are central to the identity of Sin City. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was flanked by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas does not host any showgirl-based productions, Chung says they are still employed as an emblem of the city, showing up at gatherings and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a lasting figure of Las Vegas spectacle,” she says.
The Appeal of Illusion
Hardy says the magical transformation of a showgirl is part of the allure. This is a notion the singer hints at in a new behind-the-scenes film that captures the off-camera action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included intense preparations, gym sessions and 149 performances across dozens of cities, each running for 3.5 hours.
She explains her own nights in the spotlight as “like completing an endurance race in stilettos every night”. Her feathered headdress tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the staircase to the performance area from the backstage area three floors below in the underground. I had to head up ahead of time for my entrance so I could recover before I made my entrance. One is perspiring the whole time but creating this illusion that it’s effortless and beautiful and magical.”
It could be this is where the true allure of the showgirl really is found. In the complexity of 2025 there is a longing for a break from reality. Is there anyone better to look to than such icons, who have always represented make-believe, flawlessness and a world where no one falters.
