After a three-decade tenure on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the showgirls from the revue Jubilee! gave one last synchronised kick in 2016. The production, famous for its intricate costumes crafted by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to dwindling audience numbers and critical critics who labeled it a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Now, roughly eight years later, showgirls, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is back.
A Master of Glitz
Referred to as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made theatrical stage sparkle his defining aesthetic, outfitting everyone from screen legends to music superstars. Earlier this month, a “barely-there” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, far exceeding its initial estimate, while a silver and gold fringed bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more enticing for the emerging artists who is looking for something other than what they knew from childhood”, he stated in an interview with a newspaper. “Contemporary performers are striving for a glamorous, more theatrical, breathtaking, entrance-making statement.”
The Pop Culture Comeback
It’s a look that glided all the way to the epicenter of mainstream fashion in 2025 propelled by a chart-topping superstar. In the past few months, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, feathered armbands and glittering headpiece were ideal for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
She has company. This year, glamorous nods have been embraced by pop stars including Miley Cyrus as they danced across arena stages in glitter, cut-outs and plumes, highlighted against overstated sets. A top stylist Lorenzo Posocco explained to Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the mid-century, her performers fluttered giant feathered fans.
Drawing from History
Lipa, Carpenter and other hitmakers also draw on classic entertainment forms, including vaudeville and chorus line references. The outcome are vastly different from the late-century teen pop of short shirts and utilitarian trousers, and street-style dance moves that preceded this trend.
But not everyone are on board with this glamour resurgence. An ex-showgirl, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the early 2000s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “employed as an umbrella term encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently today's icons.”
A Highly Sought-After Classic Style
For millennial and young adult stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become incredibly sought-after. In 2024, a style icon paid tribute to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the star wore a translucent embellished dress created by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, a singer paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn previously 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 favorite among fashion collectors.
“The showgirl aesthetic bring about a sense of longing for a bygone era of glitz,” says a historian, a curator at the an academic institution, who documents the history of showgirls. “Currently it is viewed as a sort of ‘acceptable’ sexy because it has been updated. It has got all the glamour, the crystals and the glitter but without the nudity.”
More Than Simply Fashion: An Symbol of the City
The expert says this figure are central to the iconography of Sin City. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was accompanied by two showgirls. While Las Vegas no longer has any traditional showgirl productions, the historian says they are still featured as an symbol of the city, appearing at corporate events and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a remaining icon of Las Vegas glamour,” she says.
The Appeal of Illusion
Nancy Hardy says the transformative effect of a showgirl persona is part of the attraction. It’s something Taylor Swift hints at in a latest documentary series that captures the backstage action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting practice sessions, gym sessions and 149 performances across multiple nations, each going on for 3.5 hours.
The performer explains her own stage routines as “like running a marathon in heels every night”. Her headpiece was 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the steps to the performance area from the green rooms three floors below in the lower level. I had to leave early for my entrance so I could catch my breath before I went on stage. You are perspiring the whole time but creating this fantasy that it’s simple and beautiful and magical.”
Perhaps this is where the true allure of the showgirl really is found. In the chaos of 2025 there is a desire for a break from reality. Who better to turn to than showgirls, who have always embodied make-believe, idealism and a realm where no one misses a mark.
