After a three-decade run on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the dancers from the revue Jubilee! executed their last choreographed kick in 2016. The show, famous for its ornate costumes designed by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, ended its run due to dwindling audience numbers and disappointed critics who labeled it a spectacle “trapped in time”.
Currently, almost a decade later, the showgirl persona, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is back.
A King of Glitz
Dubbed the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made over-the-top showgirl glitz his defining aesthetic, clothing everyone from Hollywood icons to Madonna. In a recent auction, a “barely-there” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, well over its estimated price, while a silver and gold fringed bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more appealing for the emerging artists who is looking for something other than what they grew up with”, he told a publication. “Contemporary performers are striving for a show-stopping, more theatrical, show-stopping, grand statement.”
A Pop Culture Comeback
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the centre of mainstream fashion in 2025 largely due to a global pop icon. Earlier this year, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The crystal-covered bra and thong, plumed armbands and glittering headpiece were tailor-made for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer has company. This year, showgirl inspirations have been incorporated by singers including Miley Cyrus as they whizzed across arena stages in sequins, strategic openings and ostrich feathers, illuminated against camp sets. A top stylist Lorenzo Posocco told a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the 50s, her performers wafted giant ostrich feather fans.
Pulling from History
These artists and other hitmakers also reference historical entertainment forms, including vaudeville and chorus line references. The results are worlds away from the 1990s era teen pop of short shirts and utilitarian trousers, and street-style dance moves that preceded this trend.
But not everyone are convinced with this showgirl revival. A former performer, a former Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the 00s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word term is being “employed as an umbrella term encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even modern pop stars.”
The Coveted Retro Style
For gen Z and modern stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a style icon paid tribute to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actress wore a translucent sequined dress created by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, Miley Cyrus paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn earlier in the year 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 vintage enthusiasts.
“This style inspire nostalgia for a bygone era of glitz,” says Su Kim Chung, an expert at the an academic institution, who documents the history of showgirls. “Today it is seen as a sort of ‘acceptable’ appeal because it has been modified. It has got all the glamour, the sparkles and the glitter but without the nudity.”
More Than Simply Style: An Icon of the City
Chung says the showgirl image are integral to the imagery of Vegas. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was surrounded by two showgirls. While Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-based productions, Jung says they are still featured as an emblem of the city, appearing at conventions and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a remaining icon of Las Vegas glamour,” she says.
An Appeal of Escape
The former showgirl says the magical transformation of a stage character is part of the appeal. This is a notion Taylor Swift references in a new docuseries that shows the backstage action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included intense preparations, training and countless shows across dozens of cities, each lasting 3.5 hours.
She explains her own showgirl performances as “comparable to completing an endurance race in high heels every night”. Her feathered headdress tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the staircase to the performance area from the dressing rooms three floors below in the underground. I had to leave early for my entrance so I could recover before I made my entrance. One is perspiring the whole time but maintaining this illusion that it’s easy and stunning and magical.”
It could be this is where the appeal of the showgirl really resides. In the chaos of 2025 there is a longing for escapism. Is there anyone better to turn to than such icons, who have always represented fantasy, flawlessness and a world where no one falters.
