After a 31-year stint on the Las Vegas strip, the performers from the revue Jubilee! gave one last choreographed kick in 2016. The show, famous for its elaborate costumes crafted by style icon Bob Mackie, ended its run due to declining audience numbers and unimpressed critics who labeled it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Currently, nearly ten years later, showgirls, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is making a comeback.
The King of Glitz
Referred to as the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made dramatic stage sparkle his signature style, clothing everyone from screen legends to music superstars. Recently, a “barely-there” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, seven times its estimated price, while a silver and gold fringed bodysuit with shiny 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 desiring something other than what they grew up with”, he told a media outlet. “New stars are pushing toward a glamorous, more dramatic, show-stopping, grand statement.”
A Mainstream Comeback
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the heart of popular culture in 2025 thanks to a global pop icon. Earlier this year, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The crystal-covered bra and thong, plumed armbands and shimmering headpiece were tailor-made for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
She has company. This year, showgirl references have been embraced by music artists including Dua Lipa as they zoomed across world tours in sparkles, cut-outs and plumes, illuminated against theatrical sets. Her fashion curator Lorenzo Posocco mentioned in an interview with a style publication he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the 1950s, Lipa’s dancers wafted giant plumed accessories.
Pulling from Tradition
Lipa, Carpenter and other chart toppers also draw on 19th-century performances, including vaudeville and chorus line references. The results are poles apart from the 1990s era Britney Spears era of revealing tops and cargo pants, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that came before them.
But some critics are convinced with this glamour resurgence. Nancy Hardy, a former Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the 00s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “treated as an broad label encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly today's icons.”
The Coveted Vintage Look
For gen Z and modern stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a famous actress paid tribute to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the actor wore a see-through sequined dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he made 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 earlier in the year to perform at the Grammys. In September, the singer wore a collection of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among collectors.
“Showgirls bring about nostalgia for a historical elegance,” says Su Kim Chung, a curator at the University of Nevada, who documents the story of showgirls. “Today it is seen as a sort of ‘acceptable’ appeal because it has been updated. It has got all the sophistication, the rhinestones and the shine but without the exposure.”
More Than Just Fashion: An Icon of the City
The expert says showgirls are key to the iconography of Las Vegas. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was flanked by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas does not host any showgirl-based productions, Jung says they are still employed as an symbol of the city, showing up at corporate events and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a lasting symbol of Vegas spectacle,” the expert says.
The Allure of Illusion
Hardy says the complete change of a stage character is part of the allure. It’s something Swift references in a latest documentary series that captures the behind-the-scenes action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included intense preparations, training and 149 performances across 21 countries, each running for 3.5 hours.
Hardy recalls her own nights in the spotlight as “similar to extreme physical exertion in high heels every night”. Her feathered headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the staircase to the performance area from the dressing rooms three floors below in the basement. I had to head up ahead of time for my moment so I could rest before I went on stage. You’re sweating the whole time but maintaining this illusion that it’s effortless and gorgeous and magical.”
Maybe this is where the appeal of the showgirl really resides. In the busyness of 2025 there is a craving for fantasy. What better figure to turn to than showgirls, who have always embodied make-believe, perfection and a world where nobody falters.
