After a long-running run on the Las Vegas strip, the showgirls from the revue Jubilee! took a final choreographed kick in 2016. The extravaganza, famous for its ornate costumes designed by style icon Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to falling audience numbers and disappointed reviewers who labeled it a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Today, nearly ten years later, the showgirl, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is making a comeback.
A Sultan of Glitz
Known as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made dramatic stage sparkle his trademark look, clothing everyone from Hollywood icons to pop royalty. In a recent auction, a “barely-there” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, far exceeding its projected value, while a metallic fringed bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more enticing for the emerging artists who is desiring something other than what they grew up with”, he explained to a publication. “Contemporary performers are pushing toward a theatrical, more theatrical, attention-grabbing, entrance-making statement.”
A Pop Culture Revival
It’s a look that glided all the way to the centre of mainstream fashion in 2025 thanks 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 rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and glittering headpiece were ideal for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
She isn't alone. This year, glamorous nods have been incorporated by singers including Miley Cyrus as they whizzed across arena stages in glitter, strategic openings and ostrich feathers, illuminated against overstated sets. Her fashion curator her creative director told Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the mid-century, Lipa’s dancers waved giant feathered fans.
Pulling from the Past
These artists and other chart toppers also take inspiration from historical entertainment forms, including vaudeville and chorus line references. The results are poles apart from the 90s Britney Spears era of revealing tops and utilitarian trousers, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that preceded this trend.
But not everyone are on board with this glamour resurgence. Nancy Hardy, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the early 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “employed as an broad label including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even modern pop stars.”
A Coveted Classic Look
For millennial and millennial stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, Zendaya gave a nod to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the actress 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. Later that year, Miley Cyrus paid an significant price to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn earlier in the year to perform at the Grammys. In September, the singer wore a series of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among fashion collectors.
“The showgirl aesthetic bring about a sense of longing for a bygone era of glitz,” says Su Kim Chung, a curator at the an academic institution, who researches the history of showgirls. “Currently it is considered a sort of ‘acceptable’ appeal because it has been modified. It has got all the sophistication, the sparkles and the glitter but without the exposure.”
A Than Just Fashion: An Symbol of the City
Chung says showgirls are integral to the identity of Sin City. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was flanked by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-centric productions, Jung says they are still employed as an emblem of the city, showing up at conventions and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a remaining symbol of Las Vegas glitz and glamour,” the expert says.
An Appeal of Illusion
Nancy Hardy says the magical transformation of a showgirl persona is part of the attraction. This is a notion the singer references in a latest documentary series that documents the off-camera action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included intense practice sessions, workouts and countless concerts across multiple nations, each lasting 3.5 hours.
Hardy explains her own nights in the spotlight as “comparable to completing an endurance race in high heels every night”. Her feathered headdress was 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the stairs to the performance area from the dressing rooms three floors below in the basement. I had to head up ahead of time for my cue so I could recover before I went on stage. You’re working hard the whole time but creating this image that it’s easy and stunning and ethereal.”
It could be this is where the appeal of the showgirl really is found. In the busyness of 2025 there is a longing for escapism. Is there anyone better to look to than showgirls, who have always embodied dreams, flawlessness and a world where no one makes a mistake.
