After a long-running stint on the iconic Vegas strip, the showgirls from the production Jubilee! gave one last synchronised kick in 2016. The show, famous for its intricate costumes created by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, ended its run due to dwindling audience numbers and critical reviewers who called it a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Currently, nearly ten years later, the showgirl persona, or at least the showgirl style, is back.
A Sultan of Glitz
Known as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made theatrical showgirl glamour his trademark look, dressing everyone from screen legends to pop royalty. Earlier this month, a “see-through” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, well over its projected value, while a shimmering fringed bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more enticing for the new generation of stars who is seeking something other than what they knew from childhood”, he explained to a newspaper. “Today's artists are striving for a glamorous, more dramatic, breathtaking, entrance-making statement.”
The Pop Culture Resurgence
It’s a look that glided all the way to the centre of mainstream fashion in 2025 propelled by a global pop icon. Earlier this year, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The bedazzled bra and thong, feathered armbands and shimmering headpiece were ideal for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift is part of a trend. This year, glamorous nods have been adopted by music artists including Miley Cyrus as they zoomed across world tours in sparkles, cut-outs and plumes, highlighted against overstated sets. Lipa’s stylist her creative director told a style publication he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the 50s, her performers wafted giant ostrich feather fans.
Pulling from History
Modern stars and other hitmakers also take inspiration from 19th-century entertainment forms, including vaudeville and chorus line references. The results are vastly different from the 90s pop style of revealing tops and baggy pants, and street-style dance moves that preceded this trend.
But some critics are on board with this showgirl renaissance. Nancy Hardy, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the 00s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “treated as an broad label covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently modern pop stars.”
The Coveted Retro Look
For millennial and modern stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a famous actress gave a nod to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the star wore a see-through beaded dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, Miley Cyrus paid an significant price to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn previously to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a trio of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a favorite among fashion collectors.
“The showgirl aesthetic bring about nostalgia for a bygone era of glitz,” says Su Kim Chung, an expert at the a Las Vegas university, who researches the history of showgirls. “Currently it is viewed as a sort of ‘acceptable’ sexy because it has been modified. It has got all the sophistication, the crystals and the glitter but without the nudity.”
A Than Just Fashion: An Symbol of Las Vegas
Chung says showgirls are central to the iconography of Vegas. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was flanked by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas does not host any showgirl-based productions, the historian says they are still used as an logo of the city, appearing at gatherings and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a remaining symbol of Las Vegas spectacle,” the expert says.
The Appeal of Transformation
Nancy Hardy says the magical transformation of a showgirl is part of the allure. This is a notion the singer references in a recent docuseries that documents the off-camera action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting rehearsals, workouts and countless concerts across 21 countries, each running for 3.5 hours.
Hardy describes her own showgirl performances as “like completing an endurance race in stilettos every night”. Her headpiece tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the steps to the platform from the backstage area three floors below in the basement. I had to start early for my cue so I could catch my breath before I made my entrance. You are perspiring the whole time but crafting this fantasy that it’s easy and beautiful and magical.”
Perhaps this is where the appeal of the showgirl fantasy really lies. In the chaos of 2025 there is a longing for a break from reality. What better figure to emulate than showgirls, who have always embodied fantasy, idealism and a world where nobody makes a mistake.
