After a 31-year run on the Las Vegas strip, the showgirls from the production Jubilee! executed their last synchronised kick in 2016. The show, famous for its ornate costumes designed by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, came to an end due to falling audience numbers and critical commentators who described it as a spectacle “trapped in time”.
Today, roughly eight years later, the showgirl, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is back.
A King of Glitz
Referred to as the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made over-the-top stage sparkle his trademark look, outfitting everyone from screen legends to Madonna. In a recent auction, a “barely-there” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, seven times its initial estimate, while a silver and gold tasseled bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more appealing for the new generation of stars who is looking for something other than what they grew up with”, he stated in an interview with a newspaper. “Contemporary performers are pushing toward a theatrical, more dramatic, attention-grabbing, entrance-making statement.”
The Mainstream Revival
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the epicenter of popular culture in 2025 propelled by a chart-topping superstar. Earlier this year, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and shimmering headpiece were perfect for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer has company. This year, showgirl inspirations have been incorporated by pop stars including Dua Lipa as they danced across arena stages in glitter, cut-outs and plumes, highlighted against overstated sets. Lipa’s stylist a fashion expert explained to a style publication he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the 50s, her performers fluttered giant plumed accessories.
Drawing from Tradition
Lipa, Carpenter and other hitmakers also draw on historical entertainment forms, including vaudeville and dance line references. The results are poles apart from the 1990s era pop style of crop tops and cargo pants, and urban dance moves that were popular earlier.
But some critics are on board with this showgirl revival. A former performer, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the 2000s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word term is being “treated as an catch-all phrase covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently modern pop stars.”
A Coveted Classic Style
For younger and modern stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, Zendaya paid tribute to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the star wore a translucent sequined dress created by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, Miley Cyrus paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn previously to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a trio of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among fashion collectors.
“This style bring about a sense of longing for a past glamour,” says a historian, a curator at the University of Nevada, who studies the story of showgirls. “Now it is seen as a sort of ‘acceptable’ sexy because it has been modified. It has got all the elegance, the rhinestones and the sparkle but without the nudity.”
A Than Just Fashion: An Icon of the City
She says showgirls are key to the identity of Sin City. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was accompanied by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas does not host any showgirl-based productions, the historian says they are still used as an emblem of the city, being present at conventions and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a lasting figure of Vegas glamour,” the expert says.
The Appeal of Escape
Nancy Hardy says the transformative effect of a showgirl persona is part of the allure. This is a notion the singer hints at in a recent docuseries that documents the off-camera action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling practice sessions, gym sessions and numerous shows across 21 countries, each lasting 3.5 hours.
Hardy describes her own stage routines as “comparable to completing an endurance race in high heels every night”. Her headdress was 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the staircase to the platform from the dressing rooms three floors below in the basement. I had to start early for my cue so I could catch my breath before I went on stage. One is sweating the whole time but creating this image that it’s effortless and gorgeous and dreamlike.”
Perhaps this is where the true allure of the showgirl fantasy really resides. In the complexity of 2025 there is a craving for fantasy. Who better to turn to than such icons, who have always embodied fantasy, idealism and a realm where nobody misses a mark.
