After a 31-year run on the Las Vegas strip, the performers from the production Jubilee! took a final synchronised kick in 2016. The production, famous for its elaborate costumes created by style icon Bob Mackie, came to an end due to declining audience numbers and disappointed reviewers who labeled it a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Now, nearly ten years later, the showgirl, or at least the showgirl style, is back.
A Master of Glitz
Dubbed the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made theatrical showgirl glamour his defining aesthetic, dressing everyone from Marilyn Monroe to music superstars. Recently, a “naked” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, seven times its estimated price, while a silver and gold tasseled bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more appealing for the new generation of stars who is desiring something other than what they knew from childhood”, he stated in an interview with a media outlet. “Contemporary performers are embracing a show-stopping, more spectacular, show-stopping, memorable statement.”
The Pop Culture Resurgence
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the heart of popular culture in 2025 propelled by a chart-topping superstar. In the past few months, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The bedazzled bra and thong, plumed armbands and sparkly headpiece were perfect for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer is part of a trend. This year, showgirl references have been adopted by pop stars including Dua Lipa as they danced across arena stages in sparkles, strategic openings and ostrich feathers, spotlighted against camp sets. A top stylist a fashion expert mentioned in an interview with a style publication he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the 1950s, Lipa’s dancers wafted giant ostrich feather fans.
Pulling from History
These artists and other hitmakers also reference 19th-century performances, including vaudeville and chorus line references. The results are worlds away from the late-century Britney Spears era of revealing tops and utilitarian trousers, and urban dance moves that came before them.
But not everyone are on board with this glamour resurgence. A former performer, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the early 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “used as an umbrella term including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly today's icons.”
A Highly Sought-After Classic Look
For millennial and millennial stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, Zendaya gave a nod to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the actor wore a see-through embellished dress created 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 tasseled 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 collectors.
“Showgirls evoke fond memories for a bygone era of glitz,” says an archivist, a curator at the a Las Vegas university, who researches the legacy of showgirls. “Now it is viewed as a sort of ‘acceptable’ allure because it has been modified. It has got all the sophistication, the sparkles and the sparkle but without the nudity.”
More Than Simply Fashion: An Icon of Las Vegas
The expert says showgirls are central to the identity of Vegas. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was surrounded by two showgirls. While Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-centric productions, Jung says they are still featured as an logo of the city, showing up at conventions and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a lasting symbol of Las Vegas spectacle,” the expert says.
An Appeal of Illusion
Hardy says the complete change of a showgirl persona is part of the attraction. This is a notion the singer references in a new behind-the-scenes film that shows the off-camera action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included intense rehearsals, gym sessions and countless shows across dozens of cities, each going on for 3.5 hours.
She recalls her own nights in the spotlight as “like completing an endurance race in heels every night”. Her feathered headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the stairs to the platform from the green rooms three floors below in the lower level. I had to leave early for my entrance so I could rest before I made my entrance. You’re working hard the whole time but maintaining this illusion that it’s effortless and gorgeous and dreamlike.”
Perhaps this is where the appeal of the showgirl really is found. In the chaos of 2025 there is a desire for fantasy. What better figure to emulate than these performers, who have always represented make-believe, idealism and a world where nobody falters.
