🔗 Share this article

Following a 31-year tenure on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the showgirls from the spectacle Jubilee! took a final perfectly timed kick in 2016. The production, famous for its elaborate costumes created by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to falling audience numbers and unimpressed reviewers who labeled it a spectacle “trapped in time”.

Now, almost a decade later, the showgirl persona, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is making a comeback.

The Sultan of Glitz

Known as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glamour his trademark look, dressing everyone from Hollywood icons to pop royalty. In a recent auction, a “naked” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, seven times its projected value, while a metallic fringed bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.

“In my view it looks more attractive for the new generation of stars who is seeking something other than what they were accustomed to”, he stated in an interview with a publication. “Contemporary performers are pushing toward a show-stopping, more theatrical, attention-grabbing, entrance-making statement.”

The Mainstream Resurgence

It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the epicenter of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 propelled by a global pop icon. In the past few months, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, feathered armbands and shimmering headpiece were perfect for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.

The singer is part of a trend. This year, glamorous nods have been embraced by singers including Sabrina Carpenter as they zoomed across arena stages in glitter, revealing designs and feathers, highlighted against overstated sets. Her fashion curator Lorenzo Posocco explained to Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the 50s, her performers wafted giant feathered fans.

Drawing from History

Lipa, Carpenter and other successful musicians also draw on historical entertainment forms, including burlesque and chorus line references. The outcome are vastly different from the late-century pop style of revealing tops and baggy pants, and street-style dance moves that preceded this trend.

But certain observers are on board with this showgirl revival. An ex-showgirl, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the 00s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “treated as an catch-all phrase including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly today's icons.”

A Coveted Classic Look

For younger and millennial stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a famous actress paid tribute to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the actor wore a semi-sheer beaded dress created by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, Miley Cyrus paid an significant price to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn at an awards show to perform at the Grammys. In September, Sabrina Carpenter wore a series of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a favorite among collectors.

“The showgirl aesthetic evoke a sense of longing for a past glamour,” says an archivist, head of special collections at the an academic institution, who documents the legacy of showgirls. “Today it is seen as a sort of ‘acceptable’ appeal because it has been modified. It has got all the sophistication, the crystals and the sparkle but without the nudity.”

A Than Simply Style: An Icon of Vegas

The expert says showgirls are integral to the iconography of Vegas. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was surrounded by two showgirls. While Las Vegas does not host any showgirl-based productions, Jung says they are still employed as an logo of the city, showing up at corporate events and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a lasting symbol of Las Vegas spectacle,” she says.

The Appeal of Illusion

The former showgirl says the complete change of a showgirl is part of the appeal. This is a notion Swift references in a new docuseries that shows the behind-the-scenes action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting preparations, gym sessions and 149 shows across multiple nations, each lasting 3.5 hours.

Hardy explains her own showgirl performances as “like completing an endurance race in stilettos every night”. Her feathered 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 leave early for my cue so I could recover before I made my entrance. One is working hard the whole time but maintaining this image that it’s effortless and stunning and magical.”

Maybe this is where the true allure of the showgirl fantasy really lies. In the busyness of 2025 there is a craving for escapism. Who better to emulate than such icons, who have always personified dreams, idealism and a world where nobody misses a mark.