After a 31-year run on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the dancers from the revue Jubilee! executed their last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The show, famous for its ornate costumes crafted by style icon Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to falling audience numbers and critical commentators who labeled it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Now, nearly ten years later, the showgirl, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is making a comeback.
The Master of Sparkle
Known as the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made over-the-top stage sparkle his defining aesthetic, clothing everyone from screen legends to Madonna. In a recent auction, a “see-through” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, well over its estimated price, while a silver and gold fringed bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more attractive for the younger performer who is seeking something other than what they were accustomed to”, he told a publication. “Contemporary performers are pushing toward a show-stopping, more dramatic, show-stopping, grand statement.”
The Pop Culture Revival
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the epicenter of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 largely due to a chart-topping superstar. In the past few months, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The crystal-covered bra and thong, plumed armbands and sparkly headpiece were perfect for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer is part of a trend. This year, showgirl references have been incorporated by music artists including Miley Cyrus as they danced across world tours in sparkles, cut-outs and feathers, spotlighted against theatrical sets. Her fashion curator her creative director mentioned in an interview with a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the mid-century, the backup dancers wafted giant feathered fans.
Drawing from Tradition
These artists and other hitmakers also reference 19th-century performances, including burlesque and chorus line references. The outcome are vastly different from the late-century teen pop of crop tops and cargo pants, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that were popular earlier.
But some critics are convinced with this showgirl revival. An ex-showgirl, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the early 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word term is being “treated as an broad label encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly modern pop stars.”
The Coveted Retro Style
For millennial and millennial stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become incredibly sought-after. In 2024, a style icon gave a nod to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the star wore a see-through embellished dress created by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, another pop star paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn earlier in the year to perform at the Grammys. In September, Sabrina Carpenter wore a series of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among collectors.
“Showgirls bring about nostalgia for a past glamour,” says an archivist, an expert at the a Las Vegas university, who researches the story of showgirls. “Now it is viewed as a sort of ‘toned-down’ sexy because it has been modified. It has got all the sophistication, the crystals and the glitter but without the bare skin.”
A Than Simply Style: An Symbol of the City
The expert says the showgirl image are key to the iconography of Sin City. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was accompanied by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas no longer has any traditional showgirl productions, Chung says they are still featured as an emblem of the city, being present at conventions and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a remaining symbol of Las Vegas spectacle,” the expert says.
The Appeal of Escape
Nancy Hardy says the transformative effect of a showgirl is part of the allure. It’s something Swift references in a latest behind-the-scenes film that shows the off-camera action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included intense practice sessions, training and 149 performances across multiple nations, each lasting 3.5 hours.
The performer recalls her own nights in the spotlight as “similar to running a marathon in stilettos every night”. Her headpiece tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the stairs to the platform from the backstage area three floors below in the lower level. I had to leave early for my moment so I could recover before I made my entrance. You are sweating the whole time but maintaining this illusion that it’s effortless and stunning and magical.”
Maybe this is where the appeal of the showgirl fantasy really is found. In the busyness of 2025 there is a craving for fantasy. Is there anyone better to emulate than showgirls, who have always embodied dreams, perfection and a world where nobody falters.
