Following a three-decade run on the Las Vegas strip, the performers from the production Jubilee! gave one last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The show, famous for its intricate costumes designed by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to falling audience numbers and critical critics who labeled it a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Currently, almost a decade later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl style, is making a comeback.
A King of Sequins
Known as the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glitz his signature style, clothing everyone from Hollywood icons to music superstars. Earlier this month, a “see-through” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, well over its estimated price, while a metallic beaded bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more enticing for the new generation of stars who is desiring something other than what they grew up with”, he told a publication. “Today's artists are embracing a glamorous, more spectacular, attention-grabbing, entrance-making statement.”
The Mainstream Resurgence
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the epicenter of mainstream fashion in 2025 propelled by a chart-topping superstar. In the past few months, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The crystal-covered bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and glittering headpiece were tailor-made for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift has company. This year, showgirl references have been embraced by pop stars including Miley Cyrus as they whizzed across arena stages in sparkles, cut-outs and plumes, illuminated against overstated sets. Lipa’s stylist her creative director explained to Vogue he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the mid-century, her performers fluttered giant feathered fans.
Pulling from the Past
Lipa, Carpenter and other successful musicians also draw on 19th-century entertainment forms, including burlesque and chorus line references. The results are worlds away from the late-century Britney Spears era of crop tops and cargo pants, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that preceded this trend.
But not everyone are on board with this glamour resurgence. A former performer, a former Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the 00s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “used as an umbrella term covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently modern pop stars.”
A Highly Sought-After Classic Look
For millennial and young adult stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, Zendaya paid tribute to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the star wore a see-through beaded dress created by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, a singer paid an significant price to buy the Mackie beaded 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 vintage enthusiasts.
“Showgirls evoke a sense of longing for a historical elegance,” says a historian, an expert at the University of Nevada, who studies the history of showgirls. “Today it is viewed as a sort of ‘safe’ appeal because it has been adapted. It has got all the glamour, the sparkles and the shine but without the exposure.”
A Than Simply Fashion: An Icon of Las Vegas
Chung says this figure are integral to the identity of Vegas. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was accompanied by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas currently lacks any traditional showgirl productions, the historian says they are still used as an symbol of the city, showing up at corporate events and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a remaining figure of Las Vegas glitz and glamour,” she says.
An Appeal of Escape
Nancy Hardy says the magical transformation of a showgirl is part of the attraction. It’s something the singer references in a latest documentary series that shows the behind-the-scenes action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting preparations, workouts and 149 shows across multiple nations, each running for 3.5 hours.
Hardy describes her own stage routines as “similar to running a marathon in high heels every night”. Her headpiece tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the steps to the stage from the dressing rooms three floors below in the basement. I had to start early for my entrance so I could catch my breath before I made my entrance. You are perspiring the whole time but crafting this illusion that it’s simple and gorgeous and dreamlike.”
It could be this is where the appeal of the showgirl really lies. In the complexity of 2025 there is a longing for a break from reality. What better figure to look to than such icons, who have always personified dreams, flawlessness and a realm where no one misses a mark.
