Following a 31-year tenure on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the dancers from the revue Jubilee! gave one last choreographed kick in 2016. The show, famous for its intricate costumes crafted by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, ended its run due to falling audience numbers and critical commentators who labeled it a spectacle “trapped in time”.
Currently, nearly ten years later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl style, is back.
The Master of Glitz
Known as the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made over-the-top showgirl glitz his defining aesthetic, dressing everyone from Marilyn Monroe to Madonna. Recently, a “barely-there” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, far exceeding its initial estimate, while a metallic beaded bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more enticing for the younger performer who is seeking something other than what they grew up with”, he told a newspaper. “Contemporary performers are pushing toward a theatrical, more spectacular, attention-grabbing, grand statement.”
The Mainstream Comeback
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the epicenter of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 propelled by a global pop icon. In the past few months, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The crystal-covered bra and thong, feathered armbands and sparkly headpiece were tailor-made for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
She isn't alone. This year, glamorous nods have been incorporated by singers including Miley Cyrus as they whizzed across arena stages in sparkles, strategic openings and ostrich feathers, spotlighted against theatrical sets. Her fashion curator a fashion expert mentioned in an interview with Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the 50s, Lipa’s dancers waved giant ostrich feather fans.
Drawing from History
Lipa, Carpenter and other chart toppers also draw on historical performances, including burlesque and chorus line references. The results are poles apart from the 1990s era teen pop of crop tops and utilitarian trousers, and street-style dance moves that were popular earlier.
But not everyone are convinced with this glamour resurgence. An ex-showgirl, a former Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the early 2000s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “used as an broad label covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently modern pop stars.”
The Highly Sought-After Classic Look
For millennial and young adult stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a famous actress gave a nod to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the actress wore a translucent beaded dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, another pop star paid an significant price to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn previously to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a collection of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among collectors.
“This style inspire a sense of longing for a past glamour,” says an archivist, an expert at the a Las Vegas university, who studies the legacy of showgirls. “Today it is seen as a sort of ‘toned-down’ allure because it has been adapted. It has got all the sophistication, the rhinestones and the sparkle but without the bare skin.”
More Than Simply Style: An Icon of Vegas
She says the showgirl image are key to the iconography of Sin City. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was surrounded by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-centric productions, Chung says they are still employed as an logo of the city, being present at conventions and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a enduring icon of Vegas glamour,” she says.
An Appeal of Illusion
The former showgirl says the transformative effect of a stage character is part of the allure. This is a notion the singer references in a latest documentary series that documents the off-camera action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting preparations, workouts and countless concerts across multiple nations, each running for 3.5 hours.
Hardy explains her own stage routines as “similar to extreme physical exertion in high heels every night”. Her headdress was 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the staircase to the performance area from the dressing rooms three floors below in the lower level. I had to leave early for my cue so I could recover before I went on stage. One is perspiring the whole time but maintaining this fantasy that it’s effortless and gorgeous and ethereal.”
It could be this is where the appeal of the showgirl really resides. In the complexity of 2025 there is a longing for a break from reality. What better figure to turn to than showgirls, who have always represented make-believe, flawlessness and a world where no one falters.
