After a long-running run on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the dancers from the production Jubilee! took a final choreographed kick in 2016. The production, famous for its ornate costumes designed by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to dwindling audience numbers and unimpressed reviewers who called it a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Currently, roughly eight years later, showgirls, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is making a comeback.
A Master of Sequins
Known as the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made over-the-top showgirl glitz his signature style, outfitting everyone from screen legends to pop royalty. Recently, a “barely-there” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, far exceeding its estimated price, while a metallic fringed bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more attractive for the emerging artists who is seeking something other than what they knew from childhood”, he explained to a media outlet. “Contemporary performers are pushing toward a theatrical, more dramatic, show-stopping, memorable statement.”
The Mainstream Resurgence
It’s a look that glided all the way to the centre of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 largely due to a global pop icon. Recently, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The crystal-covered bra and thong, feathered armbands and glittering headpiece were perfect for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
She has company. This year, glamorous nods have been embraced by pop stars including Miley Cyrus as they danced across world tours in sequins, revealing designs and plumes, spotlighted against overstated sets. Lipa’s stylist Lorenzo Posocco told Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the mid-century, the backup dancers wafted giant plumed accessories.
Drawing from Tradition
Modern stars and other hitmakers also reference historical performances, including vaudeville and dance line references. The results are poles apart from the 1990s era teen pop of revealing tops and cargo pants, and street-style dance moves that came before them.
But some critics are on board with this showgirl renaissance. A former performer, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the 00s 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 even Taylor Swift.”
The Coveted Retro Style
For younger and young adult stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a famous actress honored to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the actor wore a semi-sheer sequined dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, a singer paid an private amount to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn earlier in the year to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a series of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a favorite among vintage enthusiasts.
“This style evoke a sense of longing for a past glamour,” says a historian, a curator at the an academic institution, who documents the history of showgirls. “Today it is considered a sort of ‘toned-down’ allure because it has been adapted. It has got all the elegance, the sparkles and the sparkle but without the exposure.”
More Than Simply Fashion: An Symbol of the City
Chung says showgirls are central to the iconography of Las Vegas. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was surrounded by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas does not host any traditional showgirl productions, Jung says they are still featured as an emblem of the city, showing up at corporate events and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a remaining figure of Vegas glamour,” Chung says.
The Appeal of Illusion
The former showgirl says the complete change of a showgirl persona is part of the attraction. This idea the singer hints at in a latest documentary series that captures the off-camera action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling rehearsals, workouts and numerous concerts across 21 countries, each lasting 3.5 hours.
The performer recalls her own stage routines as “similar to extreme physical exertion in stilettos every night”. Her headpiece weighed 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the steps to the stage from the dressing rooms three floors below in the lower level. I had to leave early for my cue so I could catch my breath before I went on stage. One is perspiring the whole time but maintaining this illusion that it’s effortless and gorgeous and magical.”
It could be this is where the appeal of the showgirl fantasy really resides. In the chaos of 2025 there is a desire for fantasy. Who better to look to than such icons, who have always embodied dreams, perfection and a world where nobody falters.
