Following a long-running tenure on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the dancers from the production Jubilee! executed their last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The show, famous for its intricate costumes designed by style icon Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to falling audience numbers and critical reviewers who called it a spectacle “trapped in time”.
Now, almost a decade later, showgirls, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is back.
A King of Sparkle
Referred to as the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made theatrical stage sparkle his trademark look, dressing everyone from Hollywood icons to Madonna. In a recent auction, a “naked” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, far exceeding its estimated price, while a shimmering fringed bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more appealing for the younger performer who is seeking something other than what they knew from childhood”, he stated in an interview with a newspaper. “Today's artists are pushing toward a show-stopping, more theatrical, breathtaking, grand statement.”
The Pop Culture Comeback
It’s a look that glided all the way to the centre of mainstream fashion in 2025 propelled by a global pop icon. Recently, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The bedazzled bra and thong, plumed armbands and glittering headpiece were perfect for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift is part of a trend. This year, showgirl inspirations have been adopted by music artists including Dua Lipa as they danced across world tours in sequins, strategic openings and plumes, illuminated against overstated sets. A top stylist her creative director mentioned in an interview with a style publication he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the 1950s, Lipa’s dancers wafted giant ostrich feather fans.
Drawing from the Past
Lipa, Carpenter and other chart toppers also reference classic entertainment forms, including classic theater and chorus line references. The outcome are worlds away from the late-century teen pop of crop tops and cargo pants, and street-style dance moves that were popular earlier.
But certain observers are enthusiastic with this glamour resurgence. Nancy Hardy, a ex- Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the early 2000s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “employed as an broad label including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even today's icons.”
The Coveted Vintage Style
For gen Z and young adult stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a famous actress paid tribute to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the actress wore a translucent embellished dress made by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, another pop star 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, Sabrina Carpenter wore a series of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among fashion collectors.
“This style inspire a sense of longing for a bygone era of glitz,” says an archivist, head of special collections at the University of Nevada, who researches the history of showgirls. “Currently it is seen as a sort of ‘toned-down’ appeal because it has been updated. It has got all the sophistication, the rhinestones and the sparkle but without the bare skin.”
More Than Just Style: An Symbol of Las Vegas
The expert says this figure are key to the iconography of Las Vegas. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was accompanied by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-centric productions, the historian says they are still used as an logo of the city, showing up at conventions and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a lasting icon of Las Vegas glitz and glamour,” she says.
An Allure of Transformation
Nancy Hardy says the complete change of a showgirl persona is part of the allure. It’s something the singer references in a latest docuseries that documents the backstage action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting preparations, gym sessions and countless shows across dozens of cities, each lasting 3.5 hours.
The performer recalls her own nights in the spotlight as “comparable to completing an endurance race in stilettos every night”. Her headpiece was 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the steps to the platform from the dressing rooms three floors below in the lower level. I had to leave early for my entrance so I could catch my breath before I went on stage. You’re perspiring the whole time but creating this image that it’s effortless and beautiful and dreamlike.”
Maybe this is where the fascination of the showgirl really resides. In the chaos of 2025 there is a craving for fantasy. What better figure to look to than such icons, who have always personified make-believe, idealism and a realm where nobody misses a mark.
