Following a three-decade stint on the Las Vegas strip, the performers from the spectacle Jubilee! executed their last synchronised kick in 2016. The show, renowned for its ornate costumes created by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to dwindling audience numbers and unimpressed reviewers who described it as a spectacle “trapped in time”.
Today, roughly eight years later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl style, is back.
The Sultan of Glitz
Dubbed the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made theatrical showgirl glitz his trademark look, dressing everyone from Marilyn Monroe to Madonna. Earlier this month, a “naked” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, well over its estimated price, while a metallic fringed bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more attractive for the younger performer who is seeking something other than what they grew up with”, he told a media outlet. “New stars are embracing a glamorous, more dramatic, attention-grabbing, grand statement.”
The Pop Culture Resurgence
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the heart of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 largely due to a chart-topping superstar. In the past few months, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The bedazzled bra and thong, plumed armbands and sparkly headpiece were tailor-made for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer is part of a trend. This year, glamorous nods have been incorporated by music artists including Sabrina Carpenter as they whizzed across concert platforms in glitter, cut-outs and ostrich feathers, spotlighted against camp sets. Lipa’s stylist a fashion expert explained to a style publication he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the 1950s, Lipa’s dancers wafted giant feathered fans.
Pulling from the Past
These artists and other chart toppers also reference historical performances, including vaudeville and ensemble references. The results are vastly different from the late-century Britney Spears era of crop tops and utilitarian trousers, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that preceded this trend.
But certain observers are on board with this showgirl renaissance. An ex-showgirl, a ex- Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the 00s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “employed as an umbrella term encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even today's icons.”
A Coveted Vintage Style
For millennial and millennial stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, Zendaya gave a nod to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the actress wore a semi-sheer embellished dress made by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, another pop star 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 trio of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among fashion collectors.
“The showgirl aesthetic inspire nostalgia for a bygone era of glitz,” says Su Kim Chung, head of special collections at the an academic institution, who studies the legacy of showgirls. “Currently it is viewed as a sort of ‘safe’ allure because it has been modified. It has got all the elegance, the sparkles and the sparkle but without the exposure.”
More Than Just Fashion: An Icon of Vegas
The expert says this figure are integral to the iconography of Las Vegas. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was flanked by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-based productions, Jung says they are still featured as an symbol of the city, being present at corporate events and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a enduring figure of Vegas glitz and glamour,” Chung says.
An Appeal of Transformation
The former showgirl says the magical transformation of a stage character is part of the attraction. This idea Swift alludes to in a new behind-the-scenes film that documents the backstage action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included intense rehearsals, training and 149 concerts across dozens of cities, each running for 3.5 hours.
Hardy recalls her own stage routines as “similar to extreme physical exertion in high heels every night”. Her feathered headdress tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the steps to the stage from the green rooms three floors below in the underground. I had to head up ahead of time for my moment so I could catch my breath before I made my entrance. One is working hard the whole time but crafting this fantasy that it’s easy and beautiful and magical.”
Perhaps this is where the appeal of the showgirl really resides. In the complexity of 2025 there is a craving for a break from reality. Is there anyone better to emulate than showgirls, who have always represented make-believe, perfection and a universe where no one misses a mark.
