After a 31-year run on the iconic Vegas strip, the showgirls from the revue Jubilee! gave one last choreographed kick in 2016. The extravaganza, famous for its intricate costumes created by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, came to an end due to declining audience numbers and critical reviewers who called it a spectacle “trapped in time”.
Currently, roughly eight years later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl style, is making a comeback.
The Sultan of Sparkle
Known as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glitz his signature style, dressing everyone from Marilyn Monroe to pop royalty. Earlier this month, a “see-through” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, well over its projected value, while a silver and gold fringed bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more appealing for the new generation of stars who is desiring something other than what they grew up with”, he stated in an interview with a newspaper. “Contemporary performers are striving for a theatrical, more spectacular, attention-grabbing, entrance-making statement.”
The Pop Culture Resurgence
It’s a look that glided all the way to the heart of popular culture in 2025 largely due to a chart-topping superstar. Earlier this year, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The bedazzled bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and sparkly 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 Dua Lipa as they whizzed across world tours in sparkles, cut-outs and feathers, highlighted against overstated sets. A top stylist her creative director told a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the 50s, her performers fluttered giant ostrich feather fans.
Drawing from Tradition
Lipa, Carpenter and other hitmakers also draw on 19th-century entertainment forms, including vaudeville and chorus line references. The results are poles apart from the 90s teen pop of crop tops and cargo pants, and urban dance moves that preceded this trend.
But some critics are on board with this showgirl renaissance. An ex-showgirl, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the early 2000s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “used as an umbrella term covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even modern pop stars.”
A Coveted Classic Style
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 first major stars, Cher, when the star wore a semi-sheer embellished dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, a singer paid an significant price to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn previously to perform at the Grammys. In September, Sabrina Carpenter wore a trio of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among vintage enthusiasts.
“Showgirls evoke nostalgia for a past glamour,” says Su Kim Chung, head of special collections at the an academic institution, who researches the story of showgirls. “Today it is viewed as a sort of ‘acceptable’ allure because it has been modified. It has got all the sophistication, the sparkles and the shine but without the nudity.”
More Than Just Style: An Symbol of Las Vegas
Chung says this figure are integral to the iconography of Vegas. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was flanked by two showgirls. While Las Vegas currently lacks any traditional showgirl productions, Chung says they are still featured as an logo of the city, being present at conventions and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a lasting icon of Vegas glitz and glamour,” the expert says.
An Allure of Escape
Hardy says the magical transformation of a stage character is part of the appeal. It’s something Swift alludes to in a recent behind-the-scenes film that shows the behind-the-scenes action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included intense preparations, training and countless performances across dozens of cities, each lasting 3.5 hours.
She recalls her own stage routines as “comparable to completing an endurance race in heels every night”. Her headdress tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the stairs to the performance area from the green rooms 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. You are perspiring the whole time but maintaining this fantasy that it’s easy and stunning and magical.”
It could be this is where the true allure of the showgirl fantasy really resides. In the chaos of 2025 there is a desire for fantasy. What better figure to look to than showgirls, who have always embodied dreams, flawlessness and a universe where nobody misses a mark.
