After a three-decade stint on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the dancers from the spectacle Jubilee! took a final perfectly timed kick in 2016. The show, renowned for its elaborate costumes designed by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, ended its run due to dwindling audience numbers and disappointed critics who labeled it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Now, almost a decade later, the showgirl, or at least the showgirl style, is making a comeback.
The King of Sparkle
Known as the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glitz his defining aesthetic, clothing everyone from screen legends to pop royalty. In a recent auction, a “barely-there” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, seven times its estimated price, while a metallic tasseled bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more appealing for the emerging artists who is looking for something other than what they knew from childhood”, he told a publication. “New stars are striving for a theatrical, more spectacular, breathtaking, grand statement.”
A Musical Comeback
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the epicenter of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 propelled by a chart-topping superstar. Earlier this year, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, plumed armbands and shimmering headpiece were tailor-made for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
She is part of a trend. This year, glamorous nods have been adopted by music artists including Dua Lipa as they zoomed across concert platforms in sequins, cut-outs and plumes, illuminated against camp sets. Her fashion curator her creative director explained to a style publication he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the 1950s, the backup dancers waved giant ostrich feather fans.
Pulling from Tradition
These artists and other hitmakers also reference historical entertainment forms, including burlesque and dance line references. The results are poles apart from the 90s Britney Spears era of short shirts and cargo pants, and urban dance moves that were popular earlier.
But not everyone are convinced with this showgirl revival. A former performer, a former Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the early 2000s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word term is being “employed as an catch-all phrase encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently modern pop stars.”
The Highly Sought-After Vintage Style
For millennial and millennial stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, Zendaya honored to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the star wore a semi-sheer sequined dress created by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, another pop star paid an private amount to buy the Mackie beaded 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 hit among collectors.
“Showgirls evoke fond memories for a past glamour,” says Su Kim Chung, a curator at the a Las Vegas university, who studies the legacy of showgirls. “Now it is considered a sort of ‘acceptable’ sexy because it has been modified. It has got all the sophistication, the rhinestones and the glitter but without the bare skin.”
A Than Just Style: An Symbol of Vegas
The expert says showgirls are integral to the iconography of Vegas. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was accompanied by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-based productions, Chung says they are still employed as an symbol of the city, showing up at corporate events and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a lasting symbol of Vegas glamour,” Chung says.
An Allure of Escape
The former showgirl says the complete change of a stage character is part of the attraction. It’s something the singer alludes to in a new docuseries that documents the behind-the-scenes action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling practice sessions, training and 149 performances across multiple nations, each running for 3.5 hours.
Hardy recalls her own stage routines as “similar to extreme physical exertion in stilettos every night”. Her headdress was 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the staircase to the stage from the green rooms three floors below in the basement. I had to start early for my entrance so I could rest before I went on stage. You’re sweating the whole time but maintaining this image that it’s easy and beautiful and magical.”
Maybe this is where the true allure of the showgirl fantasy really lies. In the busyness of 2025 there is a desire for a break from reality. Who better to look to than such icons, who have always personified dreams, perfection and a realm where no one makes a mistake.
