Following a 31-year stint on the Las Vegas strip, the showgirls from the production Jubilee! took a final synchronised kick in 2016. The show, known for its elaborate costumes designed by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, came to an end due to dwindling audience numbers and critical reviewers who called it a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Now, almost a decade later, the showgirl, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is back.
The Master of Glitz
Dubbed the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made dramatic stage sparkle his trademark look, clothing everyone from screen legends to pop royalty. Earlier this month, a “barely-there” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, seven times its estimated price, while a shimmering beaded bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more enticing for the emerging artists who is looking for something other than what they were accustomed to”, he stated in an interview with a media outlet. “Contemporary performers are pushing toward a show-stopping, more theatrical, breathtaking, memorable statement.”
The Pop Culture Comeback
It’s a look that glided all the way to the epicenter of popular culture in 2025 propelled by a global pop icon. Earlier this year, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The bedazzled bra and thong, feathered armbands and glittering headpiece were perfect for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer isn't alone. This year, showgirl references have been incorporated by pop stars including Miley Cyrus as they zoomed across concert platforms in sparkles, strategic openings and ostrich feathers, highlighted against camp sets. A top stylist Lorenzo Posocco mentioned in an interview with a style publication he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the 1950s, the backup dancers fluttered giant plumed accessories.
Drawing from History
Lipa, Carpenter and other successful musicians also draw on historical performances, including burlesque and dance line references. The outcome are poles apart from the 90s pop style of short shirts and baggy pants, and urban dance moves that were popular earlier.
But not everyone are convinced 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 showgirl is being “used as an umbrella term including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even modern pop stars.”
The Highly Sought-After Classic Look
For millennial and young adult stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a style icon gave a nod to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actress wore a semi-sheer sequined dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, Miley Cyrus paid an undisclosed sum 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 collection of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among collectors.
“The showgirl aesthetic bring about fond memories for a past glamour,” says Su Kim Chung, head of special collections at the an academic institution, who researches the legacy of showgirls. “Now it is viewed as a sort of ‘acceptable’ allure because it has been adapted. It has got all the elegance, the rhinestones and the glitter but without the nudity.”
More Than Simply Fashion: An Icon of Las Vegas
The expert says the showgirl image are integral to the identity of Las Vegas. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was flanked by two showgirls. While Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-based productions, Jung says they are still used as an emblem of the city, being present at corporate events and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a lasting figure of Las Vegas spectacle,” she says.
An Appeal of Illusion
The former showgirl says the complete change of a showgirl is part of the attraction. This is a notion the singer alludes to in a latest docuseries that captures the backstage action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting practice sessions, gym sessions and 149 shows across multiple nations, each lasting 3.5 hours.
Hardy describes her own nights in the spotlight as “like extreme physical exertion in heels every night”. Her headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the steps to the performance area from the backstage area three floors below in the basement. I had to head up ahead of time for my moment so I could catch my breath before I performed. You are sweating the whole time but crafting this illusion that it’s simple and gorgeous and ethereal.”
Perhaps this is where the true allure of the showgirl fantasy really resides. In the chaos of 2025 there is a craving for escapism. Is there anyone better to look to than such icons, who have always represented fantasy, idealism and a world where nobody makes a mistake.
