🔗 Share this article

Following a long-running run on the Las Vegas strip, the dancers from the spectacle Jubilee! gave one last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The show, famous for its intricate costumes crafted by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to dwindling audience numbers and unimpressed commentators who labeled it a spectacle “a relic of another era”.

Today, nearly ten years later, the showgirl persona, or at least the showgirl style, is making a comeback.

The King of Sparkle

Dubbed the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made over-the-top showgirl glitz his signature style, clothing everyone from screen legends to Madonna. In a recent auction, a “naked” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, well over its projected value, while a silver and gold fringed bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.

“In my view it looks more appealing for the emerging artists who is seeking something other than what they were accustomed to”, he explained to a publication. “Contemporary performers are embracing a glamorous, more dramatic, breathtaking, memorable statement.”

A Pop Culture Revival

It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the epicenter of mainstream fashion in 2025 largely due to a chart-topping superstar. Earlier this year, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The bedazzled bra and thong, plumed armbands and shimmering headpiece were perfect for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.

She isn't alone. This year, glamorous nods have been incorporated by pop stars including Dua Lipa as they zoomed across arena stages in sparkles, strategic openings and plumes, spotlighted against camp sets. Lipa’s stylist a fashion expert mentioned in an interview with a style publication he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the mid-century, Lipa’s dancers wafted giant plumed accessories.

Drawing from Tradition

These artists and other chart toppers also take inspiration from 19th-century performances, including classic theater and ensemble references. The final look are poles apart from the 1990s era teen pop of crop tops and baggy pants, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that preceded this trend.

But certain observers are enthusiastic with this showgirl revival. An ex-showgirl, a former Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the early 2000s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “employed as an umbrella term encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly modern pop stars.”

The Highly Sought-After Retro Look

For millennial and millennial stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become incredibly sought-after. In 2024, a style icon paid tribute to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the actress wore a translucent beaded dress made by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, a singer paid an significant price to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn previously to perform at the Grammys. In September, the singer wore a collection of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among collectors.

“Showgirls inspire a sense of longing for a historical elegance,” says an archivist, a curator at the University of Nevada, who documents the legacy of showgirls. “Today it is seen as a sort of ‘acceptable’ sexy because it has been adapted. It has got all the sophistication, the crystals and the glitter but without the bare skin.”

More Than Just Style: An Icon of Vegas

Chung says showgirls are central to the identity of Las Vegas. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was surrounded by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-centric productions, Jung says they are still employed as an symbol of the city, being present at gatherings and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a lasting figure of Las Vegas glitz and glamour,” Chung says.

The Appeal of Transformation

The former showgirl says the complete change of a stage character is part of the appeal. This idea Taylor Swift hints at in a latest docuseries that captures the backstage action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting preparations, gym sessions and 149 concerts across multiple nations, each running for 3.5 hours.

Hardy explains her own stage routines as “comparable to completing an endurance race in high heels every night”. Her headpiece weighed 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the stairs to the performance area from the green rooms three floors below in the underground. I had to head up ahead of time for my cue so I could rest before I went on stage. One is working hard the whole time but crafting this fantasy that it’s simple and beautiful and magical.”

Maybe this is where the fascination of the showgirl fantasy really is found. In the complexity of 2025 there is a desire for escapism. What better figure to turn to than these performers, who have always personified make-believe, idealism and a world where no one misses a mark.