Following a long-running tenure on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the showgirls from the production Jubilee! executed their last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The production, renowned for its ornate costumes created by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, ended its run due to dwindling audience numbers and critical commentators who called it a spectacle “trapped in time”.
Today, roughly eight years later, the showgirl, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is experiencing a revival.
The Sultan of Sequins
Dubbed the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made over-the-top showgirl glitz his signature style, clothing everyone from Hollywood icons to music superstars. Earlier this month, a “naked” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, seven times its projected value, while a shimmering fringed bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more enticing for the new generation of stars who is desiring something other than what they knew from childhood”, he stated in an interview with a media outlet. “New stars are striving for a show-stopping, more dramatic, breathtaking, grand statement.”
A Musical Comeback
It’s a look that glided all the way to the centre of mainstream fashion in 2025 largely due to a chart-topping superstar. 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, plumed armbands and sparkly headpiece were ideal for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer is part of a trend. This year, showgirl inspirations have been incorporated by music artists including Dua Lipa as they zoomed across world tours in glitter, cut-outs and feathers, highlighted against theatrical sets. Lipa’s stylist Lorenzo Posocco explained to a style publication he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the 50s, her performers waved giant feathered fans.
Pulling from History
Lipa, Carpenter and other hitmakers also reference 19th-century performances, including classic theater and dance line references. The outcome are poles apart from the 90s teen pop of crop tops and baggy pants, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that were popular earlier.
But not everyone are on board with this glamour resurgence. An ex-showgirl, a former Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the 00s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word term is being “treated as an broad label covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly modern pop stars.”
The Coveted Retro Style
For millennial and millennial stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, Zendaya gave a nod to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the actress wore a translucent beaded dress made by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, a singer paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn at an awards show to perform at the Grammys. In September, Sabrina Carpenter wore a series of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among fashion collectors.
“Showgirls bring about fond memories for a historical elegance,” says an archivist, head of special collections at the an academic institution, who studies the history of showgirls. “Now it is viewed as a sort of ‘acceptable’ allure because it has been updated. It has got all the glamour, the rhinestones and the sparkle but without the nudity.”
A Than Simply Fashion: An Icon of Vegas
Chung says this figure are key to the imagery of Sin City. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was surrounded by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-centric productions, the historian says they are still used as an symbol of the city, appearing at conventions and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a remaining symbol of Las Vegas glitz and glamour,” the expert says.
An Appeal of Illusion
The former showgirl says the complete change of a showgirl is part of the attraction. This is a notion the singer hints at in a latest docuseries that captures the behind-the-scenes action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included intense preparations, workouts and countless performances across multiple nations, each lasting 3.5 hours.
She describes her own nights in the spotlight as “similar to running a marathon in heels every night”. Her headdress was 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the staircase to the platform from the green rooms three floors below in the lower level. I had to head up ahead of time for my cue so I could rest before I made my entrance. You are working hard the whole time but crafting this image that it’s easy and stunning and dreamlike.”
It could be this is where the appeal of the showgirl really is found. In the complexity of 2025 there is a craving for escapism. Who better to turn to than such icons, who have always represented dreams, perfection and a universe where nobody misses a mark.
