Following a long-running tenure on the Las Vegas strip, the performers from the production Jubilee! took a final choreographed kick in 2016. The extravaganza, known for its intricate costumes crafted by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, came to an end due to falling audience numbers and disappointed critics who labeled it a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Today, nearly ten years later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl style, is making a comeback.
The Master of Sequins
Dubbed the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made over-the-top showgirl glamour his defining aesthetic, clothing everyone from Marilyn Monroe to Madonna. Earlier this month, a “barely-there” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, seven times its estimated price, while a metallic fringed bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more appealing for the new generation of stars who is seeking something other than what they knew from childhood”, he stated in an interview with a publication. “New stars are embracing a theatrical, more theatrical, breathtaking, grand statement.”
The Mainstream Comeback
It’s a look that glided all the way to the epicenter of mainstream fashion in 2025 propelled by a chart-topping superstar. Recently, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The bedazzled bra and thong, plumed armbands and glittering headpiece were ideal for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer has company. This year, showgirl references have been adopted by singers including Dua Lipa as they danced across world tours in sequins, cut-outs and plumes, spotlighted against overstated sets. Lipa’s stylist a fashion expert mentioned in an interview with a style publication he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the 1950s, Lipa’s dancers waved giant feathered fans.
Drawing from History
These artists and other hitmakers also take inspiration from classic performances, including classic theater and ensemble references. The outcome are poles apart from the 90s pop style of short shirts and utilitarian trousers, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that preceded this trend.
But not everyone are enthusiastic with this glamour resurgence. An ex-showgirl, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the early 2000s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “used as an umbrella term encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly today's icons.”
The Coveted Retro Style
For millennial and millennial stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, Zendaya honored to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the actor wore a semi-sheer beaded dress created by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, another pop star paid an significant price 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 series of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a favorite among collectors.
“This style bring about fond memories for a historical elegance,” says a historian, an expert at the an academic institution, who studies the story of showgirls. “Today it is viewed as a sort of ‘toned-down’ appeal because it has been modified. It has got all the elegance, the rhinestones and the shine but without the exposure.”
More Than Simply Style: An Symbol of Vegas
The expert says showgirls are key to the identity of Las Vegas. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was accompanied by two showgirls. While Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-based productions, the historian says they are still employed as an symbol of the city, being present at gatherings and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a enduring figure of Vegas spectacle,” Chung says.
An Appeal of Illusion
The former showgirl says the complete change of a stage character is part of the attraction. This idea Swift hints at in a latest docuseries that shows the behind-the-scenes action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting preparations, workouts and numerous concerts across multiple nations, each lasting 3.5 hours.
Hardy describes her own stage routines as “comparable to running a marathon in heels every night”. Her feathered headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the staircase to the platform from the green rooms three floors below in the underground. I had to head up ahead of time for my entrance so I could recover before I went on stage. You are working hard the whole time but maintaining this fantasy that it’s effortless and gorgeous and dreamlike.”
It could be this is where the fascination of the showgirl really lies. In the complexity of 2025 there is a desire for escapism. What better figure to look to than these performers, who have always personified make-believe, perfection and a universe where nobody makes a mistake.
