After a 31-year stint on the Las Vegas strip, the performers from the spectacle Jubilee! executed their last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The show, known for its ornate costumes designed by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to declining audience numbers and disappointed commentators who labeled it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Today, roughly eight years later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl style, is back.
A Master of Sequins
Known as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made theatrical showgirl glitz his signature style, clothing everyone from Hollywood icons to pop royalty. In a recent auction, a “barely-there” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, seven times its estimated price, while a metallic fringed bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 show 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 were accustomed to”, he told a media outlet. “Today's artists are striving for a theatrical, more dramatic, breathtaking, grand statement.”
The Pop Culture Revival
It’s a look that glided all the way to the epicenter of popular culture in 2025 thanks to a chart-topping superstar. Recently, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, plumed armbands and glittering headpiece were tailor-made for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer isn't alone. This year, showgirl references have been adopted by music artists including Dua Lipa as they danced across arena stages in sequins, strategic openings and plumes, highlighted against theatrical sets. Lipa’s stylist a fashion expert told Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the mid-century, Lipa’s dancers fluttered giant feathered fans.
Drawing from History
These artists and other hitmakers also take inspiration from historical entertainment forms, including vaudeville and ensemble references. The results are vastly different from the 90s teen pop of crop tops and cargo pants, and street-style dance moves that came before them.
But not everyone are enthusiastic with this showgirl revival. An ex-showgirl, a former Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the 00s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “treated as an umbrella term including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even Taylor Swift.”
The Coveted Vintage Style
For gen Z and young adult stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, Zendaya honored to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actor wore a translucent embellished dress created by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, a singer paid an private amount to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn earlier in the year to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a trio of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among vintage enthusiasts.
“Showgirls bring about a sense of longing for a bygone era of glitz,” says Su Kim Chung, a curator at the a Las Vegas university, who studies the history of showgirls. “Now it is viewed as a sort of ‘toned-down’ allure because it has been updated. It has got all the sophistication, the sparkles and the shine but without the bare skin.”
More Than Simply Style: An Symbol of Vegas
Chung says showgirls are key to the imagery of Las Vegas. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was flanked by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-centric productions, the historian says they are still used as an emblem of the city, being present at gatherings and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a lasting icon of Las Vegas spectacle,” the expert says.
An Appeal of Escape
Nancy Hardy says the transformative effect of a stage character is part of the appeal. It’s something the singer alludes to in a new docuseries that documents the off-camera action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included intense preparations, gym sessions and 149 concerts across 21 countries, each running for 3.5 hours.
Hardy explains her own stage routines as “like running a marathon in heels every night”. Her headpiece was 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the steps to the stage from the dressing rooms three floors below in the lower level. I had to head up ahead of time for my entrance so I could rest before I performed. One is perspiring the whole time but maintaining this fantasy that it’s effortless and stunning and magical.”
It could be this is where the true allure of the showgirl fantasy really lies. In the complexity of 2025 there is a longing for a break from reality. What better figure to turn to than showgirls, who have always embodied fantasy, flawlessness and a universe where nobody falters.
