Following a 31-year run on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the dancers from the production Jubilee! executed their last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The extravaganza, renowned for its ornate costumes designed by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, came to an end due to dwindling audience numbers and critical commentators who described it as a spectacle “trapped in time”.
Currently, nearly ten years later, the showgirl, or at least the showgirl style, is experiencing a revival.
A King of Sparkle
Dubbed the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made over-the-top showgirl glamour his signature style, outfitting everyone from Hollywood icons to Madonna. Recently, a “barely-there” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, seven times its projected value, while a silver and gold beaded bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more appealing for the new generation of stars who is desiring something other than what they grew up with”, he told a newspaper. “Today's artists are pushing toward a glamorous, more spectacular, breathtaking, memorable statement.”
A Pop Culture Resurgence
It’s a look that glided all the way to the centre 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 latest record. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, feathered armbands and sparkly headpiece were tailor-made for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer is part of a trend. This year, showgirl inspirations have been incorporated by pop stars including Dua Lipa as they zoomed across concert platforms in sequins, cut-outs and feathers, spotlighted against overstated sets. Her fashion curator a fashion expert explained to a style publication he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the mid-century, the backup dancers wafted giant feathered fans.
Drawing from the Past
Lipa, Carpenter and other successful musicians also reference classic entertainment forms, including burlesque and ensemble references. The outcome are poles apart from the 1990s era teen pop of crop tops and cargo pants, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that were popular earlier.
But some critics are convinced with this showgirl renaissance. Nancy Hardy, a former Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the 2000s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “used as an umbrella term including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even Taylor Swift.”
A Coveted Classic Look
For millennial and millennial stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become incredibly sought-after. In 2024, a famous actress paid tribute to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the star wore a see-through beaded dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, a singer paid an private amount to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn earlier in the year to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a collection of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among fashion collectors.
“Showgirls inspire nostalgia for a bygone era of glitz,” says Su Kim Chung, an expert at the a Las Vegas university, who documents the legacy of showgirls. “Today it is viewed as a sort of ‘acceptable’ sexy because it has been modified. It has got all the glamour, the sparkles and the shine but without the exposure.”
A Than Simply Fashion: An Icon of Las Vegas
She says showgirls are key to the iconography of Vegas. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was accompanied by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-centric productions, Jung says they are still featured as an logo of the city, being present at conventions and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a lasting figure of Vegas glitz and glamour,” she says.
An Appeal of Illusion
Nancy Hardy says the magical transformation of a stage character is part of the appeal. It’s something Taylor Swift hints at in a new documentary series that shows the backstage action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting practice sessions, training and countless concerts across multiple nations, each running for 3.5 hours.
Hardy explains her own stage routines as “comparable to running a marathon in heels every night”. Her feathered headdress was 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the stairs to the stage from the green rooms three floors below in the lower level. I had to leave early for my cue so I could recover before I made my entrance. You are perspiring the whole time but maintaining this fantasy that it’s effortless and gorgeous and magical.”
Perhaps this is where the fascination of the showgirl fantasy really resides. In the complexity of 2025 there is a longing for escapism. What better figure to turn to than these performers, who have always represented make-believe, idealism and a realm where nobody makes a mistake.
