After a long-running stint on the iconic Vegas strip, the dancers from the spectacle Jubilee! took a final synchronised kick in 2016. The show, renowned for its ornate costumes designed by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, came to an end due to dwindling audience numbers and disappointed reviewers who labeled it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Currently, nearly ten years later, the showgirl persona, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is back.
The Master of Sequins
Known as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made theatrical showgirl glitz his trademark look, clothing everyone from screen legends to pop royalty. In a recent auction, a “naked” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, seven times its projected value, while a shimmering fringed bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more enticing for the new generation of stars who is seeking something other than what they knew from childhood”, he explained to a newspaper. “Today's artists are embracing a theatrical, more theatrical, attention-grabbing, entrance-making statement.”
A Musical Resurgence
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the heart of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 propelled by a chart-topping superstar. In the past few months, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The bedazzled bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and sparkly headpiece were tailor-made for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer is part of a trend. This year, showgirl inspirations have been incorporated by pop stars including Sabrina Carpenter as they whizzed across concert platforms in sequins, revealing designs and plumes, highlighted against camp sets. Lipa’s stylist Lorenzo Posocco mentioned in an interview with Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the mid-century, the backup dancers waved giant plumed accessories.
Pulling from History
Lipa, Carpenter and other hitmakers also reference classic entertainment forms, including vaudeville and dance line references. The outcome are poles apart from the 1990s era Britney Spears era of short shirts and baggy pants, and urban dance moves that preceded this trend.
But not everyone are on board with this showgirl revival. Nancy Hardy, a former Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the 00s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “treated as an umbrella term including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly modern pop stars.”
The Highly Sought-After Retro Look
For gen Z and modern stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a style icon paid tribute to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the star wore a see-through embellished dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, Miley Cyrus paid an significant price to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn at an awards show to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a series of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among fashion collectors.
“The showgirl aesthetic evoke nostalgia for a bygone era of glitz,” says an archivist, head of special collections at the a Las Vegas university, who studies the legacy of showgirls. “Now it is viewed as a sort of ‘acceptable’ allure because it has been updated. It has got all the sophistication, the rhinestones and the glitter but without the exposure.”
More Than Just Fashion: An Symbol of the City
The expert says the showgirl image are integral to the identity of Sin City. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was accompanied by two showgirls. While Las Vegas no longer has any traditional showgirl productions, Chung says they are still used as an logo of the city, appearing at conventions and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a lasting figure of Vegas glamour,” Chung says.
An Allure of Illusion
Hardy says the transformative effect of a showgirl is part of the attraction. This is a notion the singer hints at in a new documentary series that documents the backstage action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling preparations, gym sessions and countless performances across dozens of cities, each lasting 3.5 hours.
She recalls her own nights in the spotlight as “similar to extreme physical exertion in heels every night”. Her feathered headdress tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the steps to the performance area from the backstage area three floors below in the underground. I had to start early for my moment so I could catch my breath before I went on stage. One is perspiring the whole time but maintaining this fantasy that it’s simple and stunning and magical.”
Maybe this is where the fascination of the showgirl fantasy really is found. In the busyness of 2025 there is a desire for fantasy. What better figure to emulate than such icons, who have always embodied make-believe, flawlessness and a world where nobody misses a mark.
