Following a 31-year stint on the iconic Vegas strip, the dancers from the revue Jubilee! executed their last synchronised kick in 2016. The extravaganza, known for its intricate costumes crafted by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, ended its run due to declining audience numbers and unimpressed critics who called it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Today, roughly eight years later, the showgirl, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is experiencing a revival.
The Sultan of Sequins
Dubbed the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made theatrical stage sparkle his signature style, outfitting everyone from Marilyn Monroe to pop royalty. In a recent auction, a “see-through” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, far exceeding its projected value, while a silver and gold beaded bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more attractive for the emerging artists who is looking for something other than what they knew from childhood”, he stated in an interview with a media outlet. “Today's artists are striving for a theatrical, more theatrical, breathtaking, memorable statement.”
The Pop Culture Resurgence
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the centre of mainstream fashion in 2025 thanks to a global pop icon. Recently, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The bedazzled bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and sparkly headpiece were ideal for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer isn't alone. This year, showgirl references have been embraced by singers including Dua Lipa as they zoomed across arena stages in sparkles, strategic openings and plumes, illuminated against overstated sets. Her fashion curator her creative director told a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the 1950s, Lipa’s dancers waved giant feathered fans.
Drawing from Tradition
These artists and other hitmakers also reference historical performances, including burlesque and chorus line references. The results are poles apart from the 90s pop style of short shirts and baggy pants, and urban dance moves that came before them.
But not everyone are on board with this showgirl renaissance. Nancy Hardy, a former Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the 00s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word term is being “employed as an broad label covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently today's icons.”
The Coveted Retro Look
For millennial and modern stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a style icon gave a nod to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actress wore a translucent sequined dress designed 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, the singer wore a collection of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among vintage enthusiasts.
“This style inspire nostalgia for a historical elegance,” says an archivist, a curator at the University of Nevada, who studies the story of showgirls. “Currently it is viewed as a sort of ‘safe’ allure because it has been modified. It has got all the elegance, the rhinestones and the sparkle but without the exposure.”
More Than Simply Style: An Icon of Las Vegas
Chung says this figure are key to the identity of Sin City. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was flanked by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-based productions, the historian says they are still employed as an logo of the city, showing up at conventions and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a lasting symbol of Vegas spectacle,” she says.
The Allure of Transformation
The former showgirl says the transformative effect of a showgirl persona is part of the appeal. This idea the singer references in a recent behind-the-scenes film that captures the backstage action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting practice sessions, workouts and countless shows across multiple nations, each lasting 3.5 hours.
Hardy recalls her own showgirl performances as “comparable to extreme physical exertion in heels every night”. Her headdress was 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the steps to the performance area from the green rooms three floors below in the basement. I had to leave early for my moment so I could catch my breath before I went on stage. One is perspiring the whole time but maintaining this fantasy that it’s easy and beautiful and dreamlike.”
It could be this is where the fascination of the showgirl really resides. In the complexity of 2025 there is a longing for escapism. Who better to look to than these performers, who have always represented make-believe, idealism and a universe where no one misses a mark.
