After a long-running run on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the showgirls from the production Jubilee! took a final perfectly timed kick in 2016. The production, famous for its ornate costumes crafted by style icon Bob Mackie, came to an end due to dwindling audience numbers and critical commentators who labeled it a spectacle “trapped in time”.
Now, almost a decade later, the showgirl persona, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is making a comeback.
The King of Sparkle
Known as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made over-the-top stage sparkle his signature style, dressing everyone from Hollywood icons to Madonna. In a recent auction, a “see-through” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, seven times its initial estimate, while a metallic tasseled bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more attractive for the younger performer who is looking for something other than what they knew from childhood”, he told a media outlet. “Contemporary performers are embracing a glamorous, more theatrical, show-stopping, entrance-making statement.”
The Mainstream Revival
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the heart of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 propelled by a global pop icon. Earlier this year, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The bedazzled bra and thong, plumed armbands and sparkly headpiece were perfect for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
She isn't alone. This year, showgirl inspirations have been adopted by pop stars including Sabrina Carpenter as they whizzed across arena stages in glitter, cut-outs and feathers, spotlighted against camp sets. Lipa’s stylist Lorenzo Posocco told Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the 1950s, her performers wafted giant ostrich feather fans.
Pulling from History
Lipa, Carpenter and other successful musicians also reference 19th-century performances, including burlesque and dance line references. The outcome are vastly different from the late-century teen pop of revealing tops and baggy pants, and urban dance moves that preceded this trend.
But not everyone are convinced with this glamour resurgence. A former performer, a ex- Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the 2000s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “treated as an umbrella term covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly modern pop stars.”
A Highly Sought-After Classic Style
For younger and young adult stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a famous actress honored to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the actress wore a see-through sequined dress made by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, a singer paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn at an awards show to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a trio of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among collectors.
“Showgirls inspire nostalgia for a historical elegance,” says Su Kim Chung, an expert at the an academic institution, who documents the story of showgirls. “Now it is considered a sort of ‘acceptable’ appeal because it has been adapted. It has got all the sophistication, the crystals and the glitter but without the nudity.”
More Than Just Style: An Symbol of Vegas
Chung says this figure are key to the iconography of Sin City. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was accompanied by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas does not host any showgirl-centric productions, Jung says they are still used as an symbol of the city, appearing at corporate events and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a lasting icon of Vegas glamour,” Chung says.
The Allure of Escape
Nancy Hardy says the transformative effect of a stage character is part of the attraction. This is a notion Taylor Swift hints at in a new behind-the-scenes film that captures the behind-the-scenes action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting rehearsals, workouts and countless concerts across 21 countries, each running for 3.5 hours.
Hardy recalls her own nights in the spotlight as “similar to running a marathon in high heels every night”. Her headpiece was 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the stairs 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 catch my breath before I performed. You are perspiring the whole time but maintaining this image that it’s effortless and stunning and magical.”
It could be this is where the true allure of the showgirl fantasy really lies. In the chaos of 2025 there is a longing for fantasy. What better figure to emulate than such icons, who have always represented fantasy, idealism and a realm where nobody misses a mark.
