Following a 31-year run on the Las Vegas strip, the performers from the revue Jubilee! took a final perfectly timed kick in 2016. The extravaganza, famous for its intricate costumes crafted by style icon Bob Mackie, ended its run due to declining audience numbers and unimpressed reviewers who described it as a spectacle “trapped in time”.
Now, nearly ten years later, showgirls, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is making a comeback.
A King of Sparkle
Dubbed the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made over-the-top showgirl glamour his defining aesthetic, dressing everyone from Marilyn Monroe to Madonna. In a recent auction, a “naked” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, well over its initial estimate, while a silver and gold tasseled bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more enticing for the emerging artists who is desiring something other than what they knew from childhood”, he told a newspaper. “Today's artists are embracing a glamorous, more dramatic, attention-grabbing, memorable statement.”
A Musical Revival
It’s a look that glided all the way to the heart of popular culture 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 new musical project. The bedazzled bra and thong, feathered armbands and glittering headpiece were perfect for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer is part of a trend. This year, showgirl inspirations have been embraced by singers including Miley Cyrus as they whizzed across world tours in sparkles, strategic openings and feathers, highlighted against theatrical sets. A top stylist Lorenzo Posocco explained to a style publication he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the 50s, Lipa’s dancers fluttered giant plumed accessories.
Drawing from the Past
Lipa, Carpenter and other successful musicians also take inspiration from historical entertainment forms, including classic theater and chorus line references. The final look are poles apart from the 1990s era 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 glamour resurgence. An ex-showgirl, a ex- Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the 00s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “treated as an umbrella term encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even today's icons.”
The Highly Sought-After Classic Style
For gen Z and young adult stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a famous actress honored to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the actress wore a translucent beaded dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, Miley Cyrus paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn at an awards show to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a series of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among vintage enthusiasts.
“The showgirl aesthetic evoke fond memories for a historical elegance,” says an archivist, head of special collections at the a Las Vegas university, who studies the history of showgirls. “Now it is considered a sort of ‘toned-down’ appeal because it has been modified. It has got all the glamour, the rhinestones and the glitter but without the nudity.”
A Than Just Style: An Icon of the City
The expert says this figure are integral to the iconography of Las Vegas. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was flanked by two showgirls. While Las Vegas does not host any showgirl-centric productions, Chung says they are still featured as an logo of the city, showing up at conventions and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a remaining icon of Las Vegas spectacle,” the expert says.
An Appeal of Illusion
Nancy Hardy says the magical transformation of a showgirl persona is part of the attraction. This is a notion Swift references in a recent behind-the-scenes film that documents the backstage action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling practice sessions, training and countless shows across multiple nations, each lasting 3.5 hours.
Hardy explains her own showgirl performances as “similar to completing an endurance race in heels every night”. Her headdress was 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 start early for my entrance so I could rest before I went on stage. You’re working hard the whole time but crafting this fantasy that it’s effortless and beautiful and dreamlike.”
It could be this is where the appeal of the showgirl fantasy really is found. In the chaos of 2025 there is a longing for a break from reality. What better figure to emulate than showgirls, who have always personified fantasy, idealism and a world where nobody falters.
