Following a 31-year tenure on the Las Vegas strip, the performers from the revue Jubilee! took a final synchronised kick in 2016. The show, famous for its ornate costumes designed by style icon Bob Mackie, came to an end due to falling audience numbers and unimpressed reviewers who described it as a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Currently, roughly eight years later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is back.
A Master of Sequins
Known as the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glitz his trademark look, outfitting everyone from Hollywood icons to music superstars. In a recent auction, a “naked” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, well over its initial estimate, 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 believe 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. “Contemporary performers are embracing a show-stopping, more spectacular, breathtaking, entrance-making statement.”
A Musical Revival
It’s a look that glided all the way to the epicenter of mainstream fashion in 2025 thanks to a chart-topping superstar. Recently, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The crystal-covered bra and thong, plumed armbands and glittering headpiece were ideal for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
She isn't alone. This year, showgirl inspirations have been embraced by singers including Sabrina Carpenter as they zoomed across concert platforms in sparkles, strategic openings and feathers, highlighted against camp sets. A top stylist her creative director mentioned in an interview with Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the mid-century, the backup dancers fluttered giant plumed accessories.
Drawing from the Past
Modern stars and other hitmakers also take inspiration from 19th-century performances, including vaudeville and chorus line references. The results are vastly different from the 1990s era Britney Spears era of short shirts and baggy pants, and street-style dance moves that preceded this trend.
But certain observers are on board with this glamour resurgence. Nancy Hardy, a former Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the early 2000s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “used as an catch-all phrase including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly Taylor Swift.”
The Highly Sought-After Classic Style
For millennial and young adult stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become incredibly sought-after. In 2024, Zendaya honored to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the actor wore a translucent embellished dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, Miley Cyrus paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn earlier in the year to perform at the Grammys. In September, the singer wore a trio of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among vintage enthusiasts.
“This style bring about a sense of longing for a past glamour,” says a historian, head of special collections at the University of Nevada, who documents the story of showgirls. “Today it is considered a sort of ‘toned-down’ appeal because it has been adapted. It has got all the glamour, the crystals and the sparkle but without the bare skin.”
A Than Just Fashion: An Icon of Vegas
She says this figure are central to the identity of Sin City. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was flanked by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-centric productions, Jung says they are still employed as an logo of the city, appearing at corporate events and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a lasting icon of Las Vegas glamour,” Chung says.
The Allure of Escape
Nancy Hardy says the transformative effect of a showgirl persona is part of the allure. This idea the singer hints at in a latest docuseries that documents the off-camera action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting practice sessions, workouts and numerous performances across dozens of cities, each going on for 3.5 hours.
Hardy recalls her own nights in the spotlight as “comparable to running a marathon in heels every night”. Her feathered headdress was 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the stairs to the stage from the dressing rooms three floors below in the lower level. I had to head up ahead of time for my moment so I could catch my breath before I made my entrance. You are sweating the whole time but crafting this image that it’s easy and gorgeous and magical.”
Maybe this is where the fascination of the showgirl fantasy really resides. In the complexity of 2025 there is a longing for fantasy. What better figure to turn to than these performers, who have always represented make-believe, flawlessness and a realm where no one makes a mistake.
