Following a three-decade stint on the Las Vegas strip, the dancers from the spectacle Jubilee! gave one last choreographed kick in 2016. The show, famous for its ornate costumes designed by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to dwindling audience numbers and unimpressed commentators who described it as a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Today, roughly eight years later, the showgirl persona, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is making a comeback.
A King of Sparkle
Dubbed the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made theatrical showgirl glitz his defining aesthetic, clothing everyone from Marilyn Monroe to music superstars. Recently, a “barely-there” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, far exceeding its projected value, while a silver and gold fringed bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more attractive for the younger performer who is seeking something other than what they knew from childhood”, he told a publication. “Today's artists are striving for a show-stopping, more theatrical, show-stopping, grand statement.”
A Musical Resurgence
It’s a look that glided all the way to the heart of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 thanks to a chart-topping superstar. Recently, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The bedazzled bra and thong, feathered armbands and sparkly headpiece were perfect for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer has company. This year, glamorous nods have been adopted by music artists including Sabrina Carpenter as they zoomed across concert platforms in sparkles, revealing designs and feathers, illuminated against theatrical sets. Lipa’s stylist her creative director mentioned in an interview with a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the mid-century, Lipa’s dancers fluttered giant ostrich feather fans.
Pulling from the Past
Lipa, Carpenter and other hitmakers also reference classic entertainment forms, including vaudeville and chorus line references. The final look are poles apart from the 90s Britney Spears era of crop tops and utilitarian trousers, and street-style dance moves that preceded this trend.
But some critics are convinced with this showgirl renaissance. An ex-showgirl, a ex- Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the early 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “treated as an broad label encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently modern pop stars.”
A Highly Sought-After Classic Style
For millennial and young adult stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a style icon gave a nod to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the actor wore a translucent sequined dress created by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by 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, the singer wore a series of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among fashion collectors.
“The showgirl aesthetic bring about fond memories for a bygone era of glitz,” says Su Kim Chung, a curator at the University of Nevada, who documents the legacy of showgirls. “Today it is seen as a sort of ‘toned-down’ appeal because it has been modified. It has got all the sophistication, the sparkles and the sparkle but without the bare skin.”
More Than Just Style: An Symbol of Vegas
Chung says the showgirl image are central to the iconography of Sin City. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was accompanied by two showgirls. While Las Vegas does not host any showgirl-based productions, Jung says they are still employed as an emblem of the city, showing up at conventions and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a lasting figure of Las Vegas glitz and glamour,” Chung says.
The Appeal of Illusion
The former showgirl says the complete change of a showgirl is part of the allure. This is a notion Swift alludes to in a latest docuseries that shows the backstage action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling rehearsals, gym sessions and 149 shows across 21 countries, each going on for 3.5 hours.
She explains her own showgirl performances as “comparable to completing an endurance race in high heels every night”. Her headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the stairs to the stage from the backstage area three floors below in the underground. I had to start early for my entrance so I could rest before I made my entrance. You’re working hard the whole time but maintaining this illusion that it’s easy and stunning and dreamlike.”
Maybe this is where the fascination of the showgirl really lies. In the busyness of 2025 there is a craving for fantasy. What better figure to look to than showgirls, who have always represented fantasy, flawlessness and a universe where no one makes a mistake.
