🔗 Share this article

Following a 31-year tenure on the iconic Vegas strip, the showgirls from the revue Jubilee! took a final synchronised kick in 2016. The production, known for its ornate costumes designed by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to falling audience numbers and unimpressed critics who labeled it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.

Now, almost a decade later, the showgirl persona, or at least the showgirl style, is experiencing a revival.

A Master of Sparkle

Known as the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glitz his signature style, outfitting everyone from Marilyn Monroe to music superstars. Earlier this month, a “see-through” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, seven times its initial estimate, while a metallic beaded bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.

“I think it looks more enticing for the emerging artists who is seeking something other than what they knew from childhood”, he stated in an interview with a newspaper. “New stars are embracing a glamorous, more theatrical, breathtaking, entrance-making statement.”

A Mainstream Revival

It’s a look that glided all the way to the epicenter of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 propelled by a global pop icon. Recently, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, feathered armbands and shimmering headpiece were tailor-made for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.

The singer is part of a trend. This year, showgirl references have been incorporated by singers including Dua Lipa as they danced across arena stages in glitter, revealing designs and feathers, highlighted against camp sets. Lipa’s stylist a fashion expert explained to a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the 50s, Lipa’s dancers wafted giant feathered fans.

Drawing from Tradition

Modern stars and other successful musicians also take inspiration from 19th-century performances, including classic theater and chorus line references. The results are poles apart from the 90s teen pop of crop tops and cargo pants, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that came before them.

But not everyone are on board with this showgirl renaissance. Nancy Hardy, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the early 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “treated as an broad label including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly modern pop stars.”

A Highly Sought-After Retro Look

For millennial and modern stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a style icon gave a nod to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the actress wore a translucent embellished dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, another pop star paid an private amount to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn at an awards show to perform at the Grammys. In September, Sabrina Carpenter wore a series of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among vintage enthusiasts.

“The showgirl aesthetic inspire a sense of longing for a historical elegance,” says a historian, an expert at the a Las Vegas university, who documents the history of showgirls. “Currently it is considered a sort of ‘acceptable’ appeal because it has been adapted. It has got all the glamour, the rhinestones and the glitter but without the nudity.”

More Than Simply Fashion: An Icon of Las Vegas

The expert says showgirls are key to the imagery of Las Vegas. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was flanked by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-based productions, Jung says they are still used as an logo of the city, being present at gatherings and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a lasting symbol of Vegas glamour,” she says.

The Allure of Illusion

Hardy says the transformative effect of a stage character is part of the allure. This idea Swift references in a recent behind-the-scenes film that captures the backstage action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included intense rehearsals, training and 149 shows across 21 countries, each going on for 3.5 hours.

The performer recalls her own stage routines as “similar to completing an endurance race in high heels every night”. Her headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the stairs to the platform from the green rooms three floors below in the basement. I had to start early for my moment so I could recover before I performed. You are sweating the whole time but crafting this image that it’s simple and gorgeous and dreamlike.”

Maybe this is where the fascination of the showgirl fantasy really lies. In the complexity of 2025 there is a craving for escapism. What better figure to turn to than these performers, who have always represented fantasy, flawlessness and a world where nobody misses a mark.