After a three-decade run on the Las Vegas strip, the dancers from the production Jubilee! gave one last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The show, famous for its intricate costumes created by style icon Bob Mackie, ended its run due to dwindling audience numbers and critical reviewers who described it as a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Now, roughly eight years later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl style, is back.
The Master of Glitz
Referred to as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made dramatic stage sparkle his trademark look, clothing everyone from screen legends to pop royalty. Earlier this month, a “see-through” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, well over its projected value, while a silver and gold tasseled bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie designed 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 knew from childhood”, he explained to a newspaper. “Today's artists are embracing a glamorous, more spectacular, breathtaking, grand statement.”
A Mainstream Resurgence
It’s a look that glided all the way to the epicenter of mainstream fashion in 2025 thanks to a chart-topping superstar. In the past few months, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The crystal-covered bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and sparkly headpiece were tailor-made for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.
She is part of a trend. This year, showgirl references have been incorporated by pop stars including Miley Cyrus as they zoomed across world tours in glitter, strategic openings and ostrich 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 – inspired by pictures from the 1950s, her performers wafted giant plumed accessories.
Drawing from Tradition
Modern stars and other successful musicians also take inspiration from 19th-century performances, including burlesque and ensemble references. The outcome are worlds away from the 90s pop style of short shirts and utilitarian trousers, and urban dance moves that preceded this trend.
But some critics are convinced with this glamour resurgence. Nancy Hardy, a ex- Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the 00s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “employed as an catch-all phrase including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly modern pop stars.”
The Highly Sought-After Retro Look
For younger and young adult stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a famous actress gave a nod to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the star wore a semi-sheer beaded dress made by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, a singer paid an private amount to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn earlier in the year to perform at the Grammys. In September, Sabrina Carpenter wore a trio of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a favorite among collectors.
“The showgirl aesthetic evoke a sense of longing for a historical elegance,” says an archivist, an expert at the a Las Vegas university, who studies the legacy of showgirls. “Now it is viewed as a sort of ‘toned-down’ allure because it has been modified. It has got all the sophistication, the rhinestones and the sparkle but without the exposure.”
More Than Simply Fashion: An Icon of Vegas
She says showgirls are key to the iconography of Sin City. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was surrounded by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas no longer has any traditional showgirl productions, Chung says they are still employed as an emblem of the city, appearing at corporate events and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a remaining figure of Las Vegas spectacle,” she says.
An Allure of Illusion
The former showgirl says the magical transformation of a showgirl is part of the attraction. It’s something the singer alludes to in a new documentary series that documents the backstage action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included intense practice sessions, training and 149 concerts across multiple nations, each running for 3.5 hours.
She explains her own nights in the spotlight as “like running a marathon in stilettos every night”. Her headpiece tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the staircase to the stage from the dressing rooms three floors below in the basement. I had to leave early for my cue so I could rest before I made my entrance. You are working hard the whole time but creating this image that it’s simple and stunning and ethereal.”
Perhaps this is where the appeal of the showgirl really is found. In the complexity of 2025 there is a desire for a break from reality. What better figure to turn to than showgirls, who have always represented fantasy, perfection and a world where no one falters.
