After a three-decade stint on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the performers from the revue Jubilee! gave one last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The production, famous for its ornate costumes created by style icon Bob Mackie, ended its run due to dwindling audience numbers and disappointed reviewers who described it as a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Now, almost a decade later, the showgirl persona, or at least the showgirl style, is back.
The King of Sparkle
Referred to as the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glitz his signature style, dressing everyone from screen legends to music superstars. In a recent auction, a “barely-there” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, well over its initial estimate, while a silver and gold fringed bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more attractive for the younger performer who is looking for something other than what they knew from childhood”, he told a newspaper. “New stars are striving for a show-stopping, more dramatic, breathtaking, grand statement.”
The Musical Revival
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the epicenter of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 propelled by 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 shimmering headpiece were perfect for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
She isn't alone. This year, showgirl inspirations have been embraced by pop stars including Dua Lipa as they danced across world tours in glitter, revealing designs and feathers, highlighted against camp sets. Lipa’s stylist a fashion expert mentioned in an interview with Vogue he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the 50s, her performers waved giant feathered fans.
Drawing from Tradition
Modern stars and other hitmakers also reference 19th-century entertainment forms, including vaudeville and ensemble references. The outcome are poles apart from the 90s pop style of short shirts and utilitarian trousers, and street-style dance moves that preceded this trend.
But not everyone are enthusiastic with this showgirl revival. A former performer, a ex- 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.”
The Highly Sought-After Vintage Look
For millennial and modern stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, Zendaya paid tribute to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the actress wore a semi-sheer embellished dress created by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, a singer 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, Carpenter wore a collection of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among vintage enthusiasts.
“The showgirl aesthetic inspire fond memories for a bygone era of glitz,” says an archivist, an expert at the a Las Vegas university, who studies the legacy of showgirls. “Today it is seen as a sort of ‘safe’ sexy because it has been modified. It has got all the sophistication, the crystals and the sparkle but without the exposure.”
A Than Simply Fashion: An Symbol of Las Vegas
The expert says this figure are integral to the iconography of Vegas. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was surrounded by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-based productions, Chung says they are still employed as an symbol of the city, appearing at conventions and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a lasting icon of Vegas spectacle,” she says.
An Allure of Escape
Nancy Hardy says the complete change of a showgirl persona is part of the appeal. It’s something the singer alludes to in a latest behind-the-scenes film that captures the off-camera action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included intense rehearsals, training and 149 concerts across 21 countries, each running for 3.5 hours.
She describes her own stage routines as “similar to extreme physical exertion in high heels every night”. Her headpiece tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the staircase to the performance area from the dressing rooms three floors below in the underground. I had to leave early for my moment so I could recover before I made my entrance. One is sweating the whole time but crafting this illusion that it’s effortless and stunning and magical.”
Perhaps this is where the true allure of the showgirl fantasy really lies. In the busyness of 2025 there is a desire for fantasy. Who better to turn to than these performers, who have always personified make-believe, perfection and a realm where no one falters.
