After a three-decade run on the Las Vegas strip, the dancers from the production Jubilee! gave one last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The show, renowned for its ornate costumes crafted by style icon Bob Mackie, ended its run due to declining audience numbers and critical reviewers who called it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Today, nearly ten years later, the showgirl persona, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is experiencing a revival.
A Master of Sequins
Known as the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glamour his signature style, clothing everyone from Hollywood icons to pop royalty. Recently, a “barely-there” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, seven times its projected value, while a silver and gold fringed bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more attractive for the new generation of stars who is looking for something other than what they were accustomed to”, he explained to a publication. “Contemporary performers are pushing toward a theatrical, more spectacular, attention-grabbing, grand statement.”
A Musical Comeback
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the epicenter of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 largely due to a global pop icon. Earlier this year, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and glittering headpiece were ideal for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer is part of a trend. This year, showgirl references have been incorporated by pop stars including Dua Lipa as they danced across concert platforms in glitter, cut-outs and ostrich feathers, highlighted against camp sets. Lipa’s stylist her creative director mentioned in an interview with a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the 50s, the backup dancers fluttered giant feathered fans.
Drawing from the Past
These artists and other chart toppers also draw on 19th-century entertainment forms, including vaudeville and dance line references. The results are vastly different from the 1990s era pop style of crop tops and utilitarian trousers, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that preceded this trend.
But certain observers are convinced with this showgirl revival. A former performer, a ex- Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “used as an broad label covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently today's icons.”
The Highly Sought-After Vintage Style
For gen Z and millennial stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a style icon paid tribute to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the actress wore a semi-sheer sequined dress made by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, a singer paid an significant price to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn earlier in the year to perform at the Grammys. In September, Sabrina Carpenter wore a collection of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a favorite among fashion collectors.
“This style inspire a sense of longing for a bygone era of glitz,” says Su Kim Chung, a curator at the University of Nevada, who researches the history of showgirls. “Today it is considered a sort of ‘toned-down’ appeal because it has been adapted. It has got all the sophistication, the sparkles and the glitter but without the bare skin.”
More Than Simply Fashion: An Icon of Las Vegas
The expert says this figure are integral to the iconography of Vegas. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was surrounded by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-centric productions, Chung says they are still used as an logo of the city, showing up at corporate events and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a remaining symbol of Vegas glamour,” Chung says.
An Allure of Transformation
Hardy says the complete change of a showgirl persona is part of the allure. It’s something the singer references in a new behind-the-scenes film that shows the behind-the-scenes action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling preparations, gym sessions and countless performances across multiple nations, each lasting 3.5 hours.
She recalls her own stage routines as “like running a marathon in high heels every night”. Her feathered headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the steps to the stage from the backstage area three floors below in the basement. I had to start early for my entrance so I could recover before I performed. One is sweating the whole time but crafting this illusion that it’s simple and gorgeous and ethereal.”
Maybe this is where the true allure of the showgirl really resides. In the busyness of 2025 there is a desire for escapism. What better figure to turn to than such icons, who have always personified dreams, perfection and a realm where nobody misses a mark.
