🔗 Share this article

After a 31-year tenure on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the dancers from the revue Jubilee! executed their last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The production, known for its elaborate costumes crafted by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to falling audience numbers and disappointed reviewers who called it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.

Currently, roughly eight years later, the showgirl persona, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is back.

A King of Sparkle

Known as the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made dramatic stage sparkle his trademark look, dressing everyone from Marilyn Monroe to pop royalty. In a recent auction, a “naked” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, well over its projected value, while a silver and gold tasseled bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.

“I believe it looks more appealing for the younger performer who is seeking something other than what they grew up with”, he explained to a publication. “New stars are pushing toward a glamorous, more spectacular, breathtaking, grand statement.”

A Musical 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. Earlier this year, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The bedazzled bra and thong, plumed armbands and sparkly headpiece were tailor-made for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.

The singer is part of a trend. This year, glamorous nods have been adopted by pop stars including Miley Cyrus as they whizzed across arena stages in glitter, strategic openings and feathers, spotlighted against overstated sets. A top stylist her creative director mentioned in an interview with a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the 50s, the backup dancers wafted giant feathered fans.

Pulling from the Past

Lipa, Carpenter and other chart toppers also reference historical performances, including vaudeville and chorus line references. The results are vastly different from the late-century pop style of crop tops and utilitarian trousers, and urban dance moves that came before them.

But not everyone are on board with this showgirl renaissance. A former performer, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the early 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “used as an umbrella term encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly today's icons.”

The Highly Sought-After Vintage Look

For gen Z and millennial stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become incredibly sought-after. In 2024, a style icon gave a nod to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the actor wore a semi-sheer sequined dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, Miley Cyrus paid an private amount 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 popular item among fashion collectors.

“The showgirl aesthetic inspire a sense of longing for a historical elegance,” says an archivist, a curator at the a Las Vegas university, who researches the legacy of showgirls. “Today it is considered a sort of ‘acceptable’ appeal because it has been updated. It has got all the elegance, the sparkles and the sparkle but without the nudity.”

More Than Just Style: An Icon of Vegas

She says the showgirl image are key to the identity of Las Vegas. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was surrounded by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas currently lacks any traditional showgirl productions, the historian says they are still used as an logo of the city, showing up at corporate events and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a enduring figure of Las Vegas glitz and glamour,” Chung says.

An Allure of Illusion

The former showgirl says the magical transformation of a stage character is part of the allure. This is a notion Swift references in a new docuseries that documents the off-camera action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling practice sessions, gym sessions and countless performances across 21 countries, each running for 3.5 hours.

Hardy explains her own nights in the spotlight as “similar to running a marathon in stilettos every night”. Her headpiece tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the staircase to the stage from the backstage area three floors below in the lower level. I had to head up ahead of time for my moment so I could recover before I went on stage. You’re working hard the whole time but creating this fantasy that it’s simple and gorgeous and dreamlike.”

It could be this is where the fascination of the showgirl really is found. In the chaos of 2025 there is a desire for fantasy. What better figure to look to than these performers, who have always embodied fantasy, idealism and a universe where nobody misses a mark.