Following a 31-year run on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the performers from the spectacle Jubilee! gave one last choreographed kick in 2016. The production, renowned for its ornate costumes created by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, ended its run due to dwindling audience numbers and disappointed critics who called it a spectacle “trapped in time”.
Today, almost a decade later, the showgirl persona, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is experiencing a revival.
The Master of Sequins
Known as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made theatrical stage sparkle his defining aesthetic, outfitting everyone from screen legends to Madonna. Earlier this month, a “barely-there” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, far exceeding its projected value, while a shimmering 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 knew from childhood”, he told a media outlet. “New stars are striving for a theatrical, more theatrical, breathtaking, entrance-making statement.”
The Pop Culture Comeback
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. In the past few months, 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, plumed armbands and shimmering headpiece were perfect for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.
She is part of a trend. This year, glamorous nods have been incorporated by singers including Miley Cyrus as they danced across arena stages in glitter, revealing designs and plumes, illuminated against camp sets. Lipa’s stylist her creative director explained to a style publication he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the mid-century, Lipa’s dancers wafted giant feathered fans.
Pulling from History
Lipa, Carpenter and other successful musicians also take inspiration from classic entertainment forms, including vaudeville and chorus line references. The outcome are worlds away from the late-century pop style of revealing tops and baggy pants, and street-style dance moves that came before them.
But not everyone are enthusiastic with this showgirl revival. Nancy Hardy, a ex- Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the early 2000s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word term is being “treated as an catch-all phrase encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly today's icons.”
A Highly Sought-After Retro Style
For millennial and young adult stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a style icon honored to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the actor wore a translucent embellished dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, a singer paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn earlier in the year to perform at the Grammys. In September, Sabrina Carpenter wore a series of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among collectors.
“Showgirls bring about fond memories for a historical elegance,” says a historian, an expert at the an academic institution, who researches the story of showgirls. “Now it is viewed as a sort of ‘acceptable’ sexy because it has been adapted. It has got all the elegance, the sparkles and the glitter but without the nudity.”
More Than Simply Fashion: An Symbol of the City
She says the showgirl image are integral to the iconography of Sin City. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was surrounded by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-centric productions, Chung says they are still used as an symbol of the city, being present at gatherings and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a remaining icon of Vegas glamour,” she says.
An Appeal of Illusion
Nancy Hardy says the magical transformation of a showgirl persona is part of the attraction. This idea the singer hints at in a latest documentary series that shows the off-camera action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting practice sessions, workouts and 149 shows across multiple nations, each going on for 3.5 hours.
She explains her own showgirl performances as “similar to completing an endurance race in stilettos every night”. Her feathered headdress tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the stairs to the platform from the green rooms three floors below in the underground. I had to start early for my moment so I could catch my breath before I made my entrance. You’re perspiring the whole time but crafting this fantasy that it’s easy and beautiful and magical.”
Perhaps this is where the appeal of the showgirl fantasy really resides. In the chaos of 2025 there is a craving for escapism. Is there anyone better to look to than showgirls, who have always represented make-believe, idealism and a universe where no one misses a mark.
