After a three-decade tenure on the Las Vegas strip, the performers from the revue Jubilee! executed their last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The production, famous for its intricate costumes created by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to declining audience numbers and unimpressed commentators who called it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Today, almost a decade later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl style, is experiencing a revival.
A Master of Sparkle
Dubbed the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made theatrical showgirl glitz his trademark look, outfitting everyone from Marilyn Monroe to music superstars. Recently, a “see-through” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, well over its projected value, while a silver and gold fringed bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more appealing for the younger performer who is looking for something other than what they were accustomed to”, he stated in an interview with a newspaper. “Contemporary performers are embracing a glamorous, more spectacular, attention-grabbing, entrance-making statement.”
A Mainstream Resurgence
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the heart of popular culture in 2025 largely due to a chart-topping superstar. Earlier this year, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The bedazzled bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and glittering headpiece were perfect for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.
She has company. This year, showgirl references have been adopted by pop stars including Miley Cyrus as they zoomed across concert platforms in glitter, cut-outs and feathers, spotlighted against theatrical sets. Her fashion curator her creative director mentioned in an interview with a style publication he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the mid-century, the backup dancers waved giant plumed accessories.
Drawing from the Past
Modern stars and other chart toppers also draw on 19th-century performances, including vaudeville and chorus line references. The final look are poles apart from the 90s Britney Spears era of revealing tops and utilitarian trousers, and street-style dance moves that were popular earlier.
But certain observers are enthusiastic with this glamour resurgence. An ex-showgirl, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the early 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word term is being “used as an broad label covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly today's icons.”
The Coveted Classic Style
For gen Z and modern stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a style icon gave a nod to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the actor wore a see-through beaded dress created by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, a singer paid an private amount to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn previously 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 fashion collectors.
“This style inspire nostalgia for a past glamour,” says an archivist, an expert at the an academic institution, who studies the legacy of showgirls. “Today it is seen as a sort of ‘acceptable’ sexy because it has been updated. It has got all the elegance, the rhinestones and the shine but without the exposure.”
A Than Just Style: An Icon of Las Vegas
She says the showgirl image are central to the imagery of Vegas. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was flanked by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-centric productions, the historian says they are still used as an logo of the city, being present at corporate events and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a remaining figure of Las Vegas glamour,” the expert says.
An Allure of Illusion
The former showgirl says the transformative effect of a showgirl persona is part of the attraction. It’s something the singer hints at in a recent docuseries that captures the off-camera action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling preparations, gym sessions and 149 concerts across multiple nations, each running for 3.5 hours.
The performer recalls her own showgirl performances as “similar to running a marathon in high heels every night”. Her headdress tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the stairs to the platform from the dressing rooms three floors below in the lower level. I had to start early for my cue so I could catch my breath before I made my entrance. One is working hard the whole time but creating this image that it’s effortless and gorgeous and ethereal.”
Perhaps this is where the fascination of the showgirl fantasy really resides. In the busyness of 2025 there is a craving for fantasy. Who better to look to than such icons, who have always personified make-believe, flawlessness and a universe where no one misses a mark.
