After a long-running run on the Las Vegas strip, the dancers from the spectacle Jubilee! executed their last synchronised kick in 2016. The show, famous for its elaborate costumes designed by style icon Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to falling audience numbers and disappointed critics who labeled it a spectacle “trapped in time”.
Currently, almost a decade later, the showgirl, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is making a comeback.
The King of Glitz
Dubbed the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made theatrical stage sparkle his trademark look, dressing everyone from Marilyn Monroe to pop royalty. Earlier this month, a “naked” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, seven times its projected value, while a metallic tasseled bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more appealing for the emerging artists who is seeking something other than what they were accustomed to”, he stated in an interview with a newspaper. “Contemporary performers are striving for a show-stopping, more dramatic, attention-grabbing, entrance-making statement.”
A Musical Resurgence
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the centre of popular culture in 2025 largely due to a chart-topping superstar. Earlier this year, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The bedazzled bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and shimmering headpiece were perfect for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift has company. This year, showgirl references have been adopted by music artists including Miley Cyrus as they whizzed across arena stages in glitter, strategic openings and plumes, highlighted against camp sets. Lipa’s stylist Lorenzo Posocco explained to Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the 1950s, her performers waved giant feathered fans.
Drawing from the Past
Lipa, Carpenter and other chart toppers also take inspiration from historical performances, including burlesque and ensemble references. The outcome are vastly different from the 90s Britney Spears era of revealing tops and cargo pants, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that were popular earlier.
But certain observers are on board with this glamour resurgence. An ex-showgirl, a former Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the 00s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word term is being “treated as an catch-all phrase including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly today's icons.”
The Coveted Vintage Look
For millennial and modern stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become incredibly sought-after. In 2024, a style icon gave a nod to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the star wore a translucent beaded dress made by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, another pop star paid an private amount to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn at an awards show 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 favorite among fashion collectors.
“Showgirls inspire nostalgia for a past glamour,” says Su Kim Chung, head of special collections at the an academic institution, who studies the legacy of showgirls. “Now it is viewed as a sort of ‘toned-down’ sexy because it has been updated. It has got all the glamour, the sparkles and the glitter but without the nudity.”
More Than Just Style: An Icon of the City
She says this figure are central to the iconography of Vegas. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was accompanied by two showgirls. While Las Vegas currently lacks any traditional showgirl productions, Chung says they are still employed as an emblem of the city, appearing at conventions and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a lasting symbol of Las Vegas spectacle,” Chung says.
An Allure of Escape
Nancy Hardy says the magical transformation of a showgirl is part of the allure. It’s something the singer references in a new documentary series that shows the off-camera action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting rehearsals, training and 149 concerts across multiple nations, each going on for 3.5 hours.
Hardy recalls her own nights in the spotlight as “like running a marathon in stilettos every night”. Her feathered headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the stairs to the platform from the dressing rooms three floors below in the basement. I had to head up ahead of time for my entrance so I could rest before I made my entrance. You’re working hard the whole time but crafting this illusion that it’s effortless and gorgeous and ethereal.”
Perhaps this is where the true allure of the showgirl really lies. In the complexity of 2025 there is a desire for fantasy. Who better to look to than showgirls, who have always embodied dreams, perfection and a realm where nobody falters.
