Following a 31-year run on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the performers from the spectacle Jubilee! executed their last synchronised kick in 2016. The show, known for its elaborate costumes designed by style icon Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to dwindling audience numbers and disappointed critics who described it as a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Currently, nearly ten years later, the showgirl, or at least the showgirl style, is making a comeback.
The Master of Sequins
Known as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made dramatic stage sparkle his trademark look, dressing everyone from Hollywood icons to music superstars. Earlier this month, a “naked” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, seven times its initial estimate, while a shimmering fringed bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more appealing for the emerging artists who is looking for something other than what they grew up with”, he stated in an interview with a newspaper. “Contemporary performers are embracing a glamorous, more dramatic, show-stopping, entrance-making statement.”
A Mainstream Comeback
It’s a look that glided all the way to the epicenter of mainstream fashion in 2025 largely due to a chart-topping superstar. In the past few months, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, feathered armbands and shimmering headpiece were ideal for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.
She has company. This year, glamorous nods have been adopted by singers including Dua Lipa as they zoomed across arena stages in sequins, cut-outs and ostrich feathers, highlighted against overstated sets. Lipa’s stylist Lorenzo Posocco told a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the mid-century, her performers fluttered giant feathered fans.
Pulling from History
These artists and other hitmakers also draw on 19th-century entertainment forms, including burlesque and dance line references. The final look are poles apart from the 90s Britney Spears era of crop tops and baggy pants, and urban dance moves that came before them.
But certain observers are convinced with this showgirl revival. Nancy Hardy, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the 2000s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “used as an umbrella term including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently today's icons.”
A Highly Sought-After Vintage Look
For millennial and modern stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, Zendaya paid tribute to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the actor wore a translucent beaded dress created by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, a singer paid an significant price to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn previously to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a trio of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among vintage enthusiasts.
“Showgirls evoke nostalgia for a historical elegance,” says an archivist, head of special collections at the a Las Vegas university, who researches the story of showgirls. “Now it is viewed as a sort of ‘toned-down’ allure because it has been modified. It has got all the sophistication, the rhinestones and the glitter but without the exposure.”
More Than Simply Fashion: An Symbol of Las Vegas
Chung says this figure are central to the identity of Sin City. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was accompanied by two showgirls. While Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-centric productions, Jung says they are still employed as an logo of the city, being present at conventions and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a enduring icon of Las Vegas glitz and glamour,” the expert says.
The Allure of Illusion
Nancy Hardy says the magical transformation of a showgirl persona is part of the attraction. This is a notion the singer references in a recent docuseries that captures the behind-the-scenes action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting preparations, workouts and countless performances across multiple nations, each lasting 3.5 hours.
Hardy explains her own stage routines as “like extreme physical exertion in heels every night”. Her headpiece was 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the steps to the performance area from the dressing rooms three floors below in the basement. I had to start early for my moment so I could rest before I made my entrance. You are working hard the whole time but crafting this fantasy that it’s easy and gorgeous and dreamlike.”
It could be this is where the true allure of the showgirl really is found. In the complexity of 2025 there is a craving for escapism. Is there anyone better to turn to than such icons, who have always represented fantasy, idealism and a world where no one makes a mistake.
