After a long-running stint on the iconic Vegas strip, the dancers from the revue Jubilee! took a final perfectly timed kick in 2016. The show, known for its elaborate costumes created by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, ended its run due to declining audience numbers and unimpressed critics who called it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Today, almost a decade later, the showgirl, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is experiencing a revival.
The Master of Sparkle
Referred to as the “master of glitz”, 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 commanded $57,600, far exceeding its projected value, while a silver and gold fringed bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more appealing for the emerging artists who is desiring something other than what they grew up with”, he stated in an interview with a publication. “Contemporary performers are embracing a theatrical, more theatrical, show-stopping, memorable statement.”
A Musical Comeback
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the centre of mainstream fashion in 2025 largely due to a chart-topping superstar. In the past few months, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The bedazzled bra and thong, plumed armbands and sparkly headpiece were tailor-made for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.
She isn't alone. This year, glamorous nods have been adopted by singers including Dua Lipa as they danced across world tours in glitter, cut-outs and plumes, highlighted against camp sets. Lipa’s stylist Lorenzo Posocco 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, her performers fluttered giant ostrich feather fans.
Pulling from History
These artists and other chart toppers also reference classic entertainment forms, including vaudeville and ensemble references. The final look are worlds away from the 1990s era pop style of crop tops and cargo pants, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that preceded this trend.
But not everyone are convinced with this showgirl revival. An ex-showgirl, a former Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the early 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “employed as an umbrella term covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly modern pop stars.”
A Coveted Retro Style
For millennial and millennial stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a famous actress honored to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actor wore a translucent embellished dress made by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, another pop star paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn previously to perform at the Grammys. In September, Sabrina Carpenter wore a trio of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a favorite among collectors.
“This style bring about nostalgia for a bygone era of glitz,” says an archivist, head of special collections at the an academic institution, who studies the story of showgirls. “Now it is considered a sort of ‘toned-down’ appeal because it has been modified. It has got all the glamour, the sparkles and the sparkle but without the bare skin.”
A Than Simply Style: An Symbol of Vegas
The expert says the showgirl image are integral to the iconography of Las Vegas. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was accompanied by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-based productions, Chung says they are still employed as an emblem of the city, being present at gatherings and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a enduring icon of Vegas glitz and glamour,” the expert says.
The Allure of Illusion
The former showgirl says the transformative effect of a showgirl persona is part of the allure. This is a notion Taylor Swift hints at in a latest docuseries that captures the behind-the-scenes action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting rehearsals, workouts and numerous concerts across multiple nations, each going on for 3.5 hours.
She explains her own showgirl performances as “similar to extreme physical exertion in heels every night”. Her headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the staircase to the platform from the green rooms three floors below in the lower level. I had to head up ahead of time for my moment so I could recover before I made my entrance. One is perspiring the whole time but crafting this fantasy that it’s effortless and stunning and dreamlike.”
Maybe this is where the fascination of the showgirl fantasy really lies. In the chaos of 2025 there is a craving for a break from reality. What better figure to emulate than such icons, who have always embodied fantasy, perfection and a world where nobody misses a mark.
