After a long-running run on the Las Vegas strip, the performers from the production Jubilee! took a final perfectly timed kick in 2016. The extravaganza, renowned for its elaborate costumes created by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to declining audience numbers and unimpressed critics who labeled it a spectacle “trapped in time”.
Today, nearly ten years later, the showgirl persona, or at least the showgirl style, is making a comeback.
The Master of Glitz
Known as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glitz his signature style, clothing everyone from screen legends to Madonna. In a recent auction, a “barely-there” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, seven times its projected value, while a shimmering beaded bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie designed 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 looking for something other than what they were accustomed to”, he told a publication. “Today's artists are pushing toward a show-stopping, more dramatic, show-stopping, entrance-making statement.”
A Musical Comeback
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the centre of popular culture in 2025 largely due to a global pop icon. Earlier this year, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, feathered armbands and shimmering headpiece were ideal for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer isn't alone. This year, showgirl references have been adopted by singers including Dua Lipa as they zoomed across concert platforms in sparkles, strategic openings and ostrich feathers, illuminated against camp sets. Lipa’s stylist a fashion expert told a style publication he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the 1950s, Lipa’s dancers waved giant plumed accessories.
Pulling from History
Lipa, Carpenter and other successful musicians also reference 19th-century performances, including vaudeville and ensemble references. The outcome are poles apart from the 90s pop style of revealing tops and utilitarian trousers, and urban dance moves that preceded this trend.
But certain observers are on board with this glamour resurgence. Nancy Hardy, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the 00s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “treated as an umbrella term covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently modern pop stars.”
A Coveted Retro Look
For gen Z and modern stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a famous actress paid tribute to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the star wore a translucent embellished dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, a singer paid an private amount to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn previously to perform at the Grammys. In September, Sabrina Carpenter wore a series of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among fashion collectors.
“This style inspire nostalgia for a bygone era of glitz,” says a historian, head of special collections at the a Las Vegas university, who documents the history of showgirls. “Now it is seen as a sort of ‘acceptable’ allure because it has been updated. It has got all the elegance, the rhinestones and the glitter but without the nudity.”
A Than Just Style: An Symbol of the City
Chung says the showgirl image are integral to the imagery of Vegas. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was accompanied by two showgirls. While Las Vegas does not host any showgirl-centric productions, Chung says they are still used as an logo of the city, showing up at corporate events and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a lasting figure of Las Vegas glamour,” the expert says.
An Appeal of Transformation
Hardy says the magical transformation of a showgirl is part of the allure. This idea Swift references in a new docuseries that shows the behind-the-scenes action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling rehearsals, training and 149 performances across multiple nations, each lasting 3.5 hours.
The performer describes her own showgirl performances as “comparable to completing an endurance race in heels every night”. Her feathered headdress tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the staircase to the performance area from the green rooms three floors below in the lower level. I had to leave early for my entrance so I could recover before I made my entrance. You’re sweating the whole time but creating this fantasy that it’s easy and beautiful and dreamlike.”
Perhaps this is where the true allure of the showgirl fantasy really is found. In the chaos of 2025 there is a longing for fantasy. Who better to look to than such icons, who have always represented dreams, idealism and a world where no one makes a mistake.
