After a three-decade run on the iconic Vegas strip, the performers from the production Jubilee! took a final synchronised kick in 2016. The extravaganza, known for its ornate costumes designed by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to declining audience numbers and unimpressed reviewers who labeled it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Today, roughly eight years later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl style, is back.
The King of Sequins
Known as the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made theatrical showgirl glitz his trademark look, dressing everyone from Marilyn Monroe to music superstars. In a recent auction, a “see-through” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, well over its estimated price, while a silver and gold tasseled bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more appealing for the new generation of stars who is looking for something other than what they were accustomed to”, he explained to a publication. “New stars are striving for a show-stopping, more theatrical, breathtaking, entrance-making statement.”
A Pop Culture Resurgence
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the epicenter of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 largely due to a global pop icon. In the past few months, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The crystal-covered bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and sparkly headpiece were perfect for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer is part of a trend. This year, showgirl references have been embraced by pop stars including Sabrina Carpenter as they whizzed across arena stages in glitter, revealing designs and feathers, spotlighted against theatrical sets. A top stylist a fashion expert explained to a style publication he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the 50s, the backup dancers waved giant feathered fans.
Pulling from History
Modern stars and other chart toppers also draw on 19th-century entertainment forms, including burlesque and dance line references. The results are worlds away from the 90s Britney Spears era of revealing tops and baggy pants, and urban dance moves that preceded this trend.
But not everyone are enthusiastic with this glamour resurgence. A former performer, a former Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the 2000s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “treated as an umbrella term including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently modern pop stars.”
A Coveted Retro Style
For millennial and modern stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a style icon paid tribute to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the actress wore a translucent beaded dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, a singer paid an significant price to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn earlier in the year to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a series of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among vintage enthusiasts.
“This style evoke nostalgia for a bygone era of glitz,” says an archivist, an expert at the an academic institution, who researches the story of showgirls. “Currently it is seen as a sort of ‘acceptable’ allure because it has been updated. It has got all the elegance, the sparkles and the shine but without the bare skin.”
More Than Simply Style: An Symbol of Las Vegas
The expert says this figure are integral to the imagery of Sin City. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was accompanied by two showgirls. While Las Vegas no longer has any traditional showgirl productions, Chung says they are still employed as an symbol of the city, appearing at conventions and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a remaining symbol of Las Vegas glamour,” she says.
The Allure of Illusion
Nancy Hardy says the magical transformation of a showgirl is part of the allure. It’s something the singer hints at in a recent documentary series that shows the off-camera action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included intense rehearsals, gym sessions and countless shows across dozens of cities, each lasting 3.5 hours.
Hardy explains her own stage routines as “similar to running a marathon in stilettos every night”. Her headdress tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the steps to the stage from the green rooms three floors below in the underground. I had to start early for my cue so I could recover before I went on stage. You’re perspiring the whole time but creating this fantasy that it’s simple and beautiful and ethereal.”
It could be this is where the appeal of the showgirl really resides. In the busyness of 2025 there is a craving for fantasy. What better figure to look to than such icons, who have always embodied fantasy, idealism and a universe where no one makes a mistake.
