After a 31-year run on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the performers from the production Jubilee! took a final synchronised kick in 2016. The extravaganza, famous for its elaborate costumes created by style icon Bob Mackie, ended its run due to declining audience numbers and disappointed commentators who described it as a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Today, nearly ten years later, the showgirl persona, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is making a comeback.
A Master of Sparkle
Known as the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made theatrical stage sparkle his defining aesthetic, dressing everyone from Marilyn Monroe to Madonna. Earlier this month, a “barely-there” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, far exceeding its projected value, while a shimmering beaded bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more appealing for the younger performer who is seeking something other than what they were accustomed to”, he explained to a publication. “Contemporary performers are pushing toward a show-stopping, more dramatic, breathtaking, memorable statement.”
A Musical Revival
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the centre of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 thanks to a global pop icon. In the past few months, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The bedazzled bra and thong, plumed armbands and glittering headpiece were ideal for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
She has company. This year, showgirl inspirations have been adopted by music artists including Dua Lipa as they whizzed across arena stages in sparkles, cut-outs and ostrich feathers, highlighted against camp sets. Her fashion curator a fashion expert told a style publication he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the 50s, Lipa’s dancers fluttered giant feathered fans.
Pulling from History
Lipa, Carpenter and other chart toppers also reference historical performances, including classic theater and ensemble references. The final look are worlds away from the 90s Britney Spears era of short shirts and baggy pants, and urban dance moves that were popular earlier.
But not everyone are enthusiastic with this glamour resurgence. An ex-showgirl, a former Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word term is being “treated as an broad label including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even today's icons.”
A Coveted Retro Style
For younger and millennial stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, Zendaya honored to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the actress wore a semi-sheer beaded dress made by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, another pop star paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn earlier in the year to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a trio of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among collectors.
“This style bring about a sense of longing for a bygone era of glitz,” says an archivist, a curator at the an academic institution, who studies the history of showgirls. “Now it is considered a sort of ‘toned-down’ sexy because it has been updated. It has got all the elegance, the rhinestones and the shine but without the nudity.”
A Than Just Fashion: An Icon of Las Vegas
She says this figure are integral to the imagery of Sin City. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was flanked by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-based productions, the historian says they are still used as an emblem of the city, being present at gatherings and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a enduring figure of Las Vegas spectacle,” the expert says.
The Appeal of Transformation
Nancy Hardy says the magical transformation of a showgirl is part of the appeal. This idea the singer hints at in a latest docuseries that shows the behind-the-scenes action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling rehearsals, gym sessions and 149 performances across dozens of cities, each lasting 3.5 hours.
Hardy describes her own stage routines as “comparable to running a marathon in heels every night”. Her headpiece weighed 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the stairs to the platform from the dressing 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. You’re perspiring the whole time but maintaining this illusion that it’s simple and stunning and dreamlike.”
Perhaps this is where the appeal of the showgirl fantasy really is found. In the complexity of 2025 there is a desire for a break from reality. What better figure to turn to than these performers, who have always embodied make-believe, flawlessness and a world where nobody misses a mark.
