After a 31-year stint on the Las Vegas strip, the performers from the production Jubilee! gave one last synchronised kick in 2016. The show, known for its elaborate costumes created by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, ended its run due to falling audience numbers and disappointed commentators who labeled it a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Currently, almost a decade later, the showgirl persona, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is back.
The King of Glitz
Dubbed the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made theatrical stage sparkle his defining aesthetic, outfitting everyone from screen legends to Madonna. In a recent auction, a “barely-there” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, seven times its projected value, while a silver and gold beaded bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more attractive for the new generation of stars who is desiring something other than what they knew from childhood”, he explained to a media outlet. “New stars are pushing toward a glamorous, more dramatic, show-stopping, grand statement.”
A Musical Revival
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the epicenter of popular culture in 2025 propelled by a global pop icon. 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 bedazzled bra and thong, feathered armbands and shimmering headpiece were tailor-made for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer has company. This year, showgirl references have been adopted by singers including Dua Lipa as they whizzed across concert platforms in glitter, revealing designs and ostrich feathers, illuminated against overstated sets. Her fashion curator her creative director 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, her performers waved giant feathered fans.
Drawing from the Past
Modern stars and other hitmakers also draw on 19th-century performances, including classic theater and chorus line references. The outcome are vastly different from the late-century pop style of crop tops and cargo pants, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that were popular earlier.
But some critics are convinced with this glamour resurgence. Nancy Hardy, a former Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the 00s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “treated as an broad label covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even today's icons.”
The Highly Sought-After Retro Look
For gen Z and millennial stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, Zendaya gave a nod to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actor wore a see-through sequined dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, a singer paid an private amount to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn at an awards show to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a trio of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among fashion collectors.
“This style evoke a sense of longing for a past glamour,” says an archivist, head of special collections at the a Las Vegas university, who researches the story of showgirls. “Now it is viewed as a sort of ‘acceptable’ sexy because it has been updated. It has got all the glamour, the rhinestones and the glitter but without the bare skin.”
More Than Simply Style: An Icon of Las Vegas
The expert says this figure are central to the identity of Sin City. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was flanked by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas does not host any showgirl-based productions, Chung says they are still employed as an emblem of the city, being present at gatherings and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a enduring figure of Vegas glamour,” she says.
The Allure of Transformation
Nancy Hardy says the magical transformation of a showgirl is part of the attraction. This idea the singer hints at in a latest docuseries that documents the backstage action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included intense preparations, gym sessions and 149 shows across multiple nations, each lasting 3.5 hours.
The performer describes her own stage routines as “like extreme physical exertion in high heels every night”. Her headpiece weighed 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the steps to the stage from the green rooms three floors below in the underground. I had to leave early for my entrance so I could catch my breath before I performed. You’re working hard the whole time but crafting this fantasy that it’s effortless and beautiful and dreamlike.”
It could be this is where the true allure of the showgirl really is found. In the complexity of 2025 there is a craving for fantasy. Who better to look to than showgirls, who have always embodied dreams, perfection and a universe where nobody misses a mark.
