After a long-running run on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the showgirls from the revue Jubilee! executed their last choreographed kick in 2016. The production, renowned for its elaborate costumes crafted by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, ended its run due to dwindling audience numbers and disappointed critics who described it as a spectacle “trapped in time”.
Currently, roughly eight years later, the showgirl persona, or at least the showgirl style, is back.
The King of Sparkle
Referred to as the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made theatrical showgirl glitz his defining aesthetic, dressing everyone from screen legends to music superstars. Recently, a “naked” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, well over its projected value, while a silver and gold beaded bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more attractive for the younger performer who is looking for something other than what they were accustomed to”, he told a publication. “Contemporary performers are striving for a theatrical, more theatrical, breathtaking, grand statement.”
A Mainstream Resurgence
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the centre of popular culture in 2025 largely due to a chart-topping superstar. Earlier this year, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The crystal-covered bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and glittering headpiece were tailor-made for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer has company. This year, glamorous nods have been incorporated by pop stars including Miley Cyrus as they whizzed across arena stages in glitter, revealing designs and plumes, illuminated against camp sets. A top stylist her creative director explained to a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the 50s, her performers wafted giant plumed accessories.
Drawing from History
These artists and other successful musicians also take inspiration from 19th-century entertainment forms, including classic theater and dance line references. The final look are vastly different from the late-century Britney Spears era of revealing tops and utilitarian trousers, and urban dance moves that came before them.
But some critics are convinced with this showgirl renaissance. A former performer, a former Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “treated as an catch-all phrase encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently today's icons.”
A Highly Sought-After Retro Style
For gen Z and modern stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become incredibly sought-after. In 2024, a famous actress gave a nod to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the actor wore a see-through beaded dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, Miley Cyrus paid an private amount to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn at an awards show to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a collection of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among vintage enthusiasts.
“This style bring about nostalgia for a past glamour,” says Su Kim Chung, a curator at the a Las Vegas university, who researches the story of showgirls. “Now it is considered a sort of ‘toned-down’ appeal because it has been adapted. It has got all the elegance, the sparkles and the shine but without the nudity.”
More Than Just Style: An Symbol of Las Vegas
Chung says this figure are key to the identity of Vegas. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was accompanied by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas does not host any traditional showgirl productions, Jung says they are still used as an emblem of the city, appearing at corporate events and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a remaining symbol of Las Vegas glamour,” the expert says.
An Appeal of Escape
Nancy Hardy says the transformative effect of a showgirl is part of the appeal. It’s something Taylor Swift alludes to in a recent behind-the-scenes film that shows the backstage action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting practice sessions, training and numerous performances across dozens of cities, each going on for 3.5 hours.
Hardy explains her own stage routines as “comparable to extreme physical exertion in stilettos every night”. Her feathered headdress was 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the stairs to the platform from the dressing rooms three floors below in the underground. I had to head up ahead of time for my cue so I could recover before I went on stage. One is working hard the whole time but maintaining this illusion that it’s simple and beautiful and ethereal.”
It could be this is where the fascination of the showgirl really resides. In the chaos of 2025 there is a longing for fantasy. What better figure to look to than these performers, who have always represented make-believe, idealism and a realm where nobody makes a mistake.
