After a 31-year run on the Las Vegas strip, the dancers from the revue Jubilee! took a final perfectly timed kick in 2016. The extravaganza, famous for its intricate costumes created by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, ended its run due to dwindling audience numbers and disappointed critics who called it a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Today, nearly ten years later, the showgirl, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is experiencing a revival.
The King of Sparkle
Dubbed the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made theatrical stage sparkle his trademark look, dressing everyone from Hollywood icons to music superstars. Recently, a “see-through” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, far exceeding its initial estimate, while a shimmering fringed bodysuit with reflective 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 desiring something other than what they grew up with”, he told a media outlet. “New stars are striving for a theatrical, more spectacular, show-stopping, memorable statement.”
The Mainstream Resurgence
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the heart of popular culture in 2025 largely due to a global pop icon. Earlier this year, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The crystal-covered bra and thong, plumed armbands and sparkly headpiece were ideal for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
She isn't alone. This year, glamorous nods have been embraced by music artists including Sabrina Carpenter as they danced across world tours in sparkles, cut-outs and plumes, highlighted against theatrical sets. Her fashion curator her creative director mentioned in an interview with a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the 50s, the backup dancers fluttered giant plumed accessories.
Pulling from Tradition
Modern stars and other chart toppers also draw on historical entertainment forms, including classic theater and chorus line references. The results are poles apart from the late-century pop style of revealing tops and baggy pants, and street-style dance moves that preceded this trend.
But certain observers are on board with this showgirl revival. 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 “treated as an catch-all phrase encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even today's icons.”
The Coveted Retro Style
For gen Z and young adult stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a famous actress gave a nod to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the star wore a see-through embellished dress made by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, a singer paid an significant price to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn earlier in the year to perform at the Grammys. In September, the singer wore a trio of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a favorite among fashion collectors.
“This style inspire a sense of longing for a past glamour,” says a historian, a curator at the University of Nevada, who researches the legacy of showgirls. “Today it is viewed as a sort of ‘toned-down’ sexy because it has been adapted. It has got all the glamour, the rhinestones and the sparkle but without the bare skin.”
A Than Simply Style: An Symbol of Vegas
She says the showgirl image are integral to the iconography of Sin City. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was accompanied by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-based productions, the historian says they are still featured as an logo of the city, appearing at corporate events and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a remaining figure of Las Vegas spectacle,” Chung says.
An Appeal of Transformation
Nancy Hardy says the transformative effect of a showgirl is part of the attraction. This is a notion the singer alludes to in a recent documentary series that documents the off-camera action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included intense preparations, gym sessions and 149 concerts across 21 countries, each lasting 3.5 hours.
The performer explains her own nights in the spotlight as “similar to completing an endurance race in high heels every night”. Her feathered headdress tipped the scales at 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 lower level. I had to start early for my cue so I could rest before I went on stage. You are sweating the whole time but crafting this illusion that it’s easy and beautiful and ethereal.”
It could be this is where the appeal of the showgirl really lies. In the complexity of 2025 there is a desire for a break from reality. Is there anyone better to emulate than such icons, who have always represented dreams, perfection and a world where nobody misses a mark.
