🔗 Share this article

After a three-decade stint on the Las Vegas strip, the performers from the spectacle Jubilee! gave one last choreographed kick in 2016. The show, famous for its ornate costumes designed by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, came to an end due to dwindling audience numbers and disappointed reviewers who labeled it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.

Currently, nearly ten years later, showgirls, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is experiencing a revival.

A Master of Sequins

Known as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made over-the-top stage sparkle his defining aesthetic, outfitting everyone from Marilyn Monroe to music superstars. In a recent auction, a “naked” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, well over its projected value, while a shimmering beaded bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.

“I think it looks more appealing for the emerging artists who is seeking something other than what they knew from childhood”, he stated in an interview with a media outlet. “New stars are striving for a show-stopping, more spectacular, breathtaking, grand statement.”

The Musical Comeback

It’s a look that glided all the way to the heart of popular culture in 2025 propelled by a chart-topping superstar. In the past few months, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The bedazzled bra and thong, plumed armbands and sparkly headpiece were perfect for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.

She has company. This year, showgirl inspirations have been adopted by singers including Dua Lipa as they danced across world tours in glitter, strategic openings and feathers, spotlighted against theatrical sets. Her fashion curator Lorenzo Posocco explained to Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the mid-century, the backup dancers waved giant ostrich feather fans.

Pulling from History

Modern stars and other chart toppers also take inspiration from 19th-century entertainment forms, including burlesque and chorus line references. The results are worlds away from the 1990s era teen pop of short shirts and utilitarian trousers, and urban dance moves that were popular earlier.

But some critics are on board with this showgirl renaissance. A former performer, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the 2000s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “treated as an umbrella term encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly today's icons.”

The Highly Sought-After Retro Look

For gen Z and millennial stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a famous actress honored to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the actress wore a see-through embellished dress created by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, Miley Cyrus 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, the singer wore a trio of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a favorite among fashion collectors.

“This style evoke fond memories for a past glamour,” says a historian, a curator at the an academic institution, who documents the story of showgirls. “Now it is seen as a sort of ‘acceptable’ sexy because it has been modified. It has got all the glamour, the crystals and the glitter but without the exposure.”

More Than Simply Style: An Icon of Vegas

Chung says this figure are key to the iconography of Vegas. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was accompanied by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-based productions, Jung says they are still used as an symbol of the city, being present at gatherings and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a lasting symbol of Vegas spectacle,” she says.

The Allure of Escape

Hardy says the magical transformation of a showgirl is part of the attraction. This is a notion the singer hints at in a recent documentary series that documents the backstage action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting practice sessions, workouts and numerous concerts across 21 countries, each running for 3.5 hours.

The performer explains her own nights in the spotlight as “like extreme physical exertion in heels every night”. Her headpiece weighed 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the staircase to the stage from the dressing rooms three floors below in the lower level. I had to head up ahead of time for my cue so I could recover before I performed. One is perspiring the whole time but maintaining this illusion that it’s easy and beautiful and dreamlike.”

It could be this is where the appeal of the showgirl really resides. In the busyness of 2025 there is a craving for a break from reality. Is there anyone better to look to than showgirls, who have always embodied make-believe, perfection and a world where no one makes a mistake.