After a three-decade run on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the dancers from the revue Jubilee! executed their last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The extravaganza, famous for its intricate costumes designed by style icon Bob Mackie, came to an end due to dwindling audience numbers and critical critics who labeled it a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Now, almost a decade later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl style, is experiencing a revival.
The King of Sequins
Known as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made over-the-top showgirl glitz his signature style, outfitting everyone from screen legends to pop royalty. In a recent auction, a “see-through” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, far exceeding its projected value, while a silver and gold tasseled bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more enticing for the emerging artists who is seeking something other than what they grew up with”, he told a newspaper. “Contemporary performers are embracing a glamorous, more dramatic, show-stopping, entrance-making statement.”
A Pop Culture Revival
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the epicenter of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 thanks to a global pop icon. In the past few months, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The bedazzled bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and shimmering headpiece were perfect for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
She is part of a trend. This year, showgirl inspirations have been embraced by pop stars including Dua Lipa as they zoomed across arena stages in sequins, cut-outs and ostrich feathers, highlighted against overstated sets. A top stylist her creative director told a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the 50s, Lipa’s dancers wafted giant plumed accessories.
Drawing from History
Lipa, Carpenter and other hitmakers also take inspiration from classic entertainment forms, including classic theater and dance line references. The final look are worlds away from the late-century teen pop of revealing tops and utilitarian trousers, and urban dance moves that came before them.
But not everyone are convinced with this showgirl renaissance. Nancy Hardy, a ex- Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the early 2000s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “used as an catch-all phrase covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even today's icons.”
The Highly Sought-After Classic Style
For millennial and modern stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a famous actress honored to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actor wore a see-through beaded dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, Miley Cyrus paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn previously to perform at the Grammys. In September, Sabrina Carpenter wore a collection of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a favorite among vintage enthusiasts.
“The showgirl aesthetic inspire nostalgia for a bygone era of glitz,” says a historian, head of special collections at the University of Nevada, who documents the story of showgirls. “Today it is considered a sort of ‘toned-down’ appeal because it has been modified. It has got all the elegance, the rhinestones and the sparkle but without the exposure.”
More Than Just Style: An Symbol of the City
Chung says this figure are integral to the iconography of Las Vegas. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was accompanied by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas currently lacks any traditional showgirl productions, Jung says they are still used as an emblem of the city, being present at gatherings and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a remaining icon of Las Vegas spectacle,” Chung says.
The Allure of Illusion
Hardy says the transformative effect of a stage character is part of the allure. It’s something Swift hints at in a new docuseries that documents the backstage action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included intense practice sessions, training and countless shows across dozens of cities, each running for 3.5 hours.
She recalls her own nights in the spotlight as “comparable to completing an endurance race in heels every night”. Her headdress was 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the stairs to the stage from the backstage area three floors below in the underground. I had to head up ahead of time for my moment so I could recover before I made my entrance. You’re perspiring the whole time but crafting this image that it’s simple and gorgeous and dreamlike.”
Maybe this is where the appeal of the showgirl really resides. In the busyness of 2025 there is a craving for a break from reality. What better figure to turn to than these performers, who have always embodied make-believe, idealism and a universe where no one misses a mark.
