After a three-decade run on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the performers from the spectacle Jubilee! gave one last choreographed kick in 2016. The extravaganza, renowned for its elaborate costumes crafted by style icon Bob Mackie, came to an end due to falling audience numbers and disappointed commentators who described it as a spectacle “trapped in time”.
Today, almost a decade later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is experiencing a revival.
The King of Glitz
Known as the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made theatrical showgirl glitz his trademark look, clothing everyone from screen legends to pop royalty. Earlier this month, a “see-through” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, seven times its projected value, while a silver and gold beaded bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more appealing for the younger performer who is looking for something other than what they were accustomed to”, he explained to a media outlet. “Contemporary performers are pushing toward a theatrical, more spectacular, show-stopping, entrance-making statement.”
The Musical Resurgence
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the epicenter of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 largely due to 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 bedazzled bra and thong, plumed armbands and glittering headpiece were ideal for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer has company. This year, showgirl inspirations have been incorporated by singers including Sabrina Carpenter as they danced across arena stages in sparkles, revealing designs and ostrich feathers, spotlighted against theatrical sets. A top stylist Lorenzo Posocco told a style publication he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the 50s, Lipa’s dancers wafted giant plumed accessories.
Drawing from History
These artists and other successful musicians also draw on 19th-century performances, including vaudeville and chorus line references. The outcome are poles apart from the late-century Britney Spears era of short shirts and baggy pants, and street-style dance moves that came before them.
But certain observers are enthusiastic with this glamour resurgence. Nancy Hardy, a ex- Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the early 2000s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word term is being “treated 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 Vintage Look
For gen Z and modern stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, Zendaya honored to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the actor wore a translucent sequined dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, another pop star 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 collection of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among fashion collectors.
“The showgirl aesthetic bring about nostalgia for a past glamour,” says Su Kim Chung, a curator at the a Las Vegas university, who researches the story of showgirls. “Now it is seen as a sort of ‘safe’ appeal because it has been adapted. It has got all the sophistication, the rhinestones and the shine but without the bare skin.”
A Than Simply Style: An Symbol of the City
The expert says the showgirl image are integral to the imagery of Sin City. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was surrounded by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas no longer has any traditional showgirl productions, the historian says they are still used as an emblem of the city, appearing at conventions and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a lasting icon of Vegas glamour,” she says.
The Appeal of Escape
Hardy says the magical transformation of a showgirl is part of the allure. It’s something Taylor Swift references in a recent documentary series that shows the off-camera action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included intense preparations, gym sessions and 149 shows across multiple nations, each lasting 3.5 hours.
Hardy recalls her own stage routines as “like extreme physical exertion in high heels every night”. Her headdress was 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the steps to the performance area from the backstage area three floors below in the lower level. I had to start early for my cue so I could recover before I went on stage. You’re perspiring the whole time but maintaining this image that it’s effortless and gorgeous and magical.”
It could be this is where the fascination of the showgirl really is found. In the busyness of 2025 there is a craving for escapism. Is there anyone better to look to than these performers, who have always represented dreams, idealism and a world where nobody makes a mistake.
