Following a long-running stint on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the performers from the spectacle Jubilee! gave one last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The show, famous for its intricate costumes created by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, came to an end due to falling audience numbers and critical commentators who labeled it a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Today, nearly ten years later, the showgirl persona, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is making a comeback.
A King of Sequins
Referred to as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made theatrical showgirl glitz his defining aesthetic, dressing everyone from screen legends to Madonna. Recently, a “see-through” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, well over its estimated price, while a shimmering beaded bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more appealing for the new generation of stars who is seeking something other than what they grew up with”, he stated in an interview with a newspaper. “Contemporary performers are pushing toward a glamorous, more dramatic, attention-grabbing, memorable statement.”
A Pop Culture Comeback
It’s a look that glided all the way to the epicenter of popular culture in 2025 propelled by a global pop icon. Recently, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The bedazzled bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and glittering headpiece were ideal for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer is part of a trend. This year, glamorous nods have been adopted by music artists including Dua Lipa as they zoomed across world tours in sparkles, revealing designs and feathers, highlighted against overstated sets. Lipa’s stylist Lorenzo Posocco explained to a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the 50s, her performers fluttered giant feathered fans.
Pulling from History
Lipa, Carpenter and other hitmakers also take inspiration from historical performances, including vaudeville and chorus line references. The results are vastly different from the 90s teen pop of revealing tops and utilitarian trousers, and street-style dance moves that preceded this trend.
But some critics are convinced with this glamour resurgence. Nancy Hardy, a former Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the early 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “used as an broad label covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even today's icons.”
The Coveted Vintage Look
For younger and millennial stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a style icon honored to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actor wore a semi-sheer beaded dress created 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 beaded mini dress she had worn earlier in the year to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a collection of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among collectors.
“Showgirls evoke nostalgia for a bygone era of glitz,” says Su Kim Chung, an expert at the University of Nevada, who researches the story of showgirls. “Today it is viewed as a sort of ‘toned-down’ allure because it has been adapted. It has got all the elegance, the rhinestones and the sparkle but without the exposure.”
More Than Simply Style: An Symbol of Las Vegas
Chung says showgirls are integral to the iconography of Las Vegas. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was surrounded by two showgirls. While Las Vegas does not host any showgirl-based productions, Chung says they are still employed as an emblem of the city, being present at corporate events and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a enduring figure of Las Vegas glitz and glamour,” she says.
The Appeal of Illusion
The former showgirl says the magical transformation of a showgirl persona is part of the appeal. This is a notion Taylor Swift hints at in a recent behind-the-scenes film that documents the off-camera action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting rehearsals, training and numerous performances across 21 countries, each running for 3.5 hours.
Hardy describes her own nights in the spotlight as “comparable to running a marathon in high heels every night”. Her headpiece tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the stairs to the platform from the backstage area three floors below in the lower level. I had to leave early for my cue so I could rest before I went on stage. You’re perspiring the whole time but crafting this fantasy that it’s effortless and gorgeous and magical.”
It could be this is where the true allure of the showgirl really resides. In the chaos of 2025 there is a longing for a break from reality. Is there anyone better to look to than these performers, who have always represented dreams, idealism and a realm where nobody falters.
