After a 31-year run on the Las Vegas strip, the performers from the revue Jubilee! took a final synchronised kick in 2016. The production, known for its elaborate costumes designed by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, came to an end due to declining audience numbers and critical critics who described it as a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Currently, nearly ten years later, the showgirl, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is making a comeback.
A Master of Glitz
Dubbed the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made over-the-top stage sparkle his signature style, dressing everyone from screen legends to music superstars. Recently, a “barely-there” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, well over its estimated price, while a shimmering tasseled bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more appealing for the emerging artists who is looking for something other than what they were accustomed to”, he explained to a newspaper. “Today's artists are striving for a theatrical, more dramatic, show-stopping, memorable statement.”
A Musical Comeback
It’s a look that glided all the way to the heart of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 thanks to a global pop icon. Recently, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, feathered armbands and sparkly headpiece were tailor-made for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.
She isn't alone. This year, showgirl references have been embraced by pop stars including Dua Lipa as they zoomed across world tours in glitter, revealing designs and feathers, highlighted against camp sets. Lipa’s stylist her creative director explained to Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the 50s, Lipa’s dancers wafted giant plumed accessories.
Pulling from the Past
These artists and other hitmakers also reference historical performances, including burlesque and ensemble references. The final look are worlds away from the late-century pop style of short shirts and baggy pants, and street-style dance moves that were popular earlier.
But certain observers are enthusiastic with this showgirl revival. An ex-showgirl, a former Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the early 2000s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word term is being “employed as an broad label covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even modern pop stars.”
A Highly Sought-After Classic Style
For gen Z and modern stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a famous actress paid tribute to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actress wore a see-through beaded 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 significant price to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn at an awards show 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 hit among fashion collectors.
“The showgirl aesthetic inspire a sense of longing for a bygone era of glitz,” says an archivist, an expert at the an academic institution, who studies the history of showgirls. “Currently it is considered a sort of ‘toned-down’ allure because it has been adapted. It has got all the sophistication, the crystals and the shine but without the bare skin.”
A Than Simply Fashion: An Icon of Vegas
The expert says the showgirl image are integral to the iconography of Vegas. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was flanked by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-based productions, Jung says they are still employed as an emblem of the city, being present at corporate events and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a lasting figure of Vegas spectacle,” the expert says.
The Appeal of Transformation
The former showgirl says the magical transformation of a stage character is part of the attraction. It’s something Swift references in a recent docuseries that documents the backstage action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting preparations, gym sessions and numerous performances across dozens of cities, each going on for 3.5 hours.
She recalls her own stage routines as “comparable to extreme physical exertion in heels every night”. Her headpiece weighed 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the staircase to the stage from the backstage area three floors below in the basement. I had to start early for my entrance so I could catch my breath before I performed. You are perspiring the whole time but creating this image that it’s simple and gorgeous and dreamlike.”
Perhaps this is where the appeal of the showgirl really lies. In the busyness of 2025 there is a longing for a break from reality. What better figure to look to than showgirls, who have always personified make-believe, idealism and a universe where no one falters.