After a 31-year run on the iconic Vegas strip, the performers from the revue Jubilee! gave one last choreographed kick in 2016. The production, known for its elaborate costumes designed by style icon Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to declining audience numbers and disappointed commentators who described it as a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Now, almost a decade later, the showgirl, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is making a comeback.
A Master of Glitz
Dubbed the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glamour his defining aesthetic, clothing everyone from Hollywood icons to Madonna. In a recent auction, a “barely-there” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, seven times its estimated price, while a metallic beaded bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more enticing for the younger performer who is desiring something other than what they knew from childhood”, he told a media outlet. “Contemporary performers are striving for a glamorous, more theatrical, breathtaking, entrance-making statement.”
The Pop Culture Comeback
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the centre of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 largely due to a chart-topping superstar. Recently, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and shimmering headpiece were ideal for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer isn't alone. This year, showgirl inspirations have been embraced by singers including Dua Lipa as they whizzed across concert platforms in sparkles, strategic openings and ostrich feathers, spotlighted against camp sets. Her fashion curator her creative director explained to a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the 1950s, her performers fluttered giant ostrich feather fans.
Pulling from the Past
Lipa, Carpenter and other hitmakers also reference 19th-century entertainment forms, including vaudeville and dance line references. The final look are worlds away from the 1990s era pop style of short shirts and baggy pants, and urban dance moves that were popular earlier.
But certain observers are enthusiastic with this showgirl revival. Nancy Hardy, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the 00s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word term is being “employed as an catch-all phrase encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently today's icons.”
A Highly Sought-After Retro Look
For gen Z and young adult stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, Zendaya honored to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the star wore a see-through beaded dress made by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, a singer paid an significant price to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn earlier in the year to perform at the Grammys. In September, the singer wore a trio of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among fashion collectors.
“Showgirls evoke fond memories for a bygone era of glitz,” says a historian, an expert at the University of Nevada, who documents the history of showgirls. “Today it is viewed as a sort of ‘safe’ appeal because it has been updated. It has got all the glamour, the rhinestones and the shine but without the exposure.”
A Than Just Fashion: An Symbol of Vegas
She says the showgirl image are key to the identity of Las Vegas. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was flanked by two showgirls. While Las Vegas does not host any showgirl-centric productions, Jung says they are still employed as an logo of the city, appearing at conventions and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a lasting figure of Las Vegas spectacle,” the expert says.
The Appeal of Transformation
Hardy says the transformative effect of a showgirl persona is part of the attraction. This idea the singer references in a latest behind-the-scenes film that captures the backstage action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included intense preparations, workouts and numerous performances across multiple nations, each lasting 3.5 hours.
She recalls her own showgirl performances as “similar to running a marathon in heels every night”. Her headdress tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the steps to the platform from the green rooms three floors below in the basement. I had to leave early for my entrance so I could rest before I went on stage. One is working hard the whole time but crafting this illusion that it’s easy and beautiful and ethereal.”
It could be this is where the fascination of the showgirl fantasy really lies. In the chaos of 2025 there is a longing for a break from reality. What better figure to look to than showgirls, who have always represented make-believe, idealism and a universe where no one misses a mark.
