After a three-decade run on the iconic Vegas strip, the dancers from the production Jubilee! gave one last choreographed kick in 2016. The show, renowned for its ornate costumes crafted by style icon Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to declining audience numbers and unimpressed critics who described it as a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Today, roughly eight years later, the showgirl persona, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is making a comeback.
A King of Sparkle
Known as the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made over-the-top stage sparkle his trademark look, dressing everyone from Marilyn Monroe to Madonna. In a recent auction, a “barely-there” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, far exceeding its estimated price, while a shimmering tasseled bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more attractive for the new generation of stars who is desiring something other than what they grew up with”, he explained to a newspaper. “Today's artists are pushing toward a theatrical, more theatrical, attention-grabbing, memorable statement.”
The Pop Culture Resurgence
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the epicenter of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 propelled by a chart-topping superstar. Earlier this year, the entertainment titan 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 sparkly headpiece were tailor-made for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer has company. This year, showgirl references have been incorporated by singers including Dua Lipa as they danced across world tours in glitter, strategic openings and feathers, spotlighted against theatrical sets. A top stylist her creative director told a style publication he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the mid-century, Lipa’s dancers wafted giant plumed accessories.
Pulling from History
Lipa, Carpenter and other successful musicians also draw on 19th-century entertainment forms, including classic theater and dance line references. The outcome are poles apart from the 1990s era teen pop of short shirts and baggy pants, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that came before them.
But not everyone are convinced with this glamour resurgence. Nancy Hardy, a ex- Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the 00s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “used as an catch-all phrase including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even Taylor Swift.”
The Highly Sought-After Vintage Style
For millennial and millennial stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a famous actress honored to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the star wore a see-through beaded dress created by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, Miley Cyrus paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn previously 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 vintage enthusiasts.
“This style evoke a sense of longing for a bygone era of glitz,” says an archivist, head of special collections at the an academic institution, who studies the legacy of showgirls. “Today it is viewed as a sort of ‘acceptable’ allure because it has been modified. It has got all the sophistication, the sparkles and the sparkle but without the exposure.”
A Than Simply Fashion: An Icon of Vegas
The expert says this figure are central to the imagery of Sin City. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was accompanied by two showgirls. While Las Vegas no longer has any traditional showgirl productions, the historian says they are still featured as an symbol of the city, appearing at gatherings and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a lasting icon of Vegas glamour,” Chung says.
The Appeal of Transformation
The former showgirl says the transformative effect of a stage character is part of the attraction. This is a notion Taylor Swift alludes to in a new documentary series that captures the backstage action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included intense practice sessions, training and 149 shows across multiple nations, each lasting 3.5 hours.
The performer describes her own showgirl performances 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 platform from the backstage area three floors below in the basement. I had to start early for my cue so I could rest before I went on stage. You’re perspiring the whole time but crafting this image that it’s simple and gorgeous and magical.”
It could be this is where the fascination of the showgirl fantasy really is found. In the busyness of 2025 there is a longing for a break from reality. What better figure to emulate than such icons, who have always embodied fantasy, idealism and a world where nobody misses a mark.
