🔗 Share this article

After a 31-year tenure on the Las Vegas strip, the dancers from the spectacle Jubilee! took a final choreographed kick in 2016. The show, known for its intricate costumes crafted by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, came to an end due to dwindling audience numbers and disappointed reviewers who called it a spectacle “a relic of another era”.

Now, roughly eight years later, the showgirl, or at least the showgirl style, is making a comeback.

A King of Sequins

Referred to as the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made theatrical stage sparkle his defining aesthetic, outfitting everyone from Marilyn Monroe to pop royalty. In a recent auction, a “see-through” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, seven times its initial estimate, while a shimmering beaded bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.

“I believe it looks more attractive for the new generation of stars who is looking for something other than what they grew up with”, he told a newspaper. “Today's artists are pushing toward a show-stopping, more dramatic, breathtaking, memorable statement.”

The Mainstream Revival

It’s a look that glided all the way to the epicenter of mainstream fashion in 2025 largely due to a chart-topping superstar. Recently, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and glittering headpiece were tailor-made for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.

The singer isn't alone. This year, glamorous nods have been adopted by singers including Miley Cyrus as they zoomed across concert platforms in glitter, cut-outs and ostrich feathers, highlighted against camp sets. A top stylist her creative director told a style publication he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the 50s, her performers fluttered giant plumed accessories.

Pulling from Tradition

Lipa, Carpenter and other successful musicians also draw on classic performances, including classic theater and dance line references. The final look are poles apart from the late-century teen pop of short shirts and baggy pants, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that were popular earlier.

But not everyone are enthusiastic with this showgirl revival. A former performer, a ex- Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the early 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “used as an umbrella term covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even today's icons.”

The Coveted Classic Style

For millennial and modern stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a famous actress gave a nod to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the actor wore a translucent sequined dress created by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, another pop star 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 fashion collectors.

“Showgirls evoke nostalgia for a bygone era of glitz,” says Su Kim Chung, an expert at the an academic institution, who documents the history of showgirls. “Currently it is considered a sort of ‘acceptable’ appeal because it has been modified. It has got all the elegance, the rhinestones and the shine but without the exposure.”

More Than Just Fashion: An Icon of Vegas

The expert says this figure are integral to the imagery of Vegas. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was accompanied by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas no longer has any traditional showgirl productions, the historian says they are still used as an symbol of the city, being present at gatherings and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a remaining figure of Vegas spectacle,” the expert says.

An Appeal of Illusion

The former showgirl says the transformative effect of a stage character is part of the attraction. This is a notion Taylor Swift references in a latest behind-the-scenes film that shows the off-camera action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting preparations, training and 149 performances across dozens of cities, each running for 3.5 hours.

She recalls her own showgirl performances as “like running a marathon in high heels every night”. Her headdress weighed 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 leave early for my entrance so I could rest before I went on stage. You’re perspiring the whole time but maintaining this fantasy that it’s simple and gorgeous and dreamlike.”

It could be this is where the appeal of the showgirl really lies. In the complexity of 2025 there is a longing for a break from reality. Is there anyone better to turn to than these performers, who have always personified fantasy, idealism and a realm where nobody falters.