Following a long-running run on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the performers from the revue Jubilee! executed their last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The extravaganza, famous for its elaborate costumes created by style icon Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to declining audience numbers and critical critics who described it as a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Today, roughly eight years later, the showgirl, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is making a comeback.
A King of Sparkle
Referred to as the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glamour his signature style, dressing everyone from screen legends to music superstars. Earlier this month, a “see-through” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, seven times its initial estimate, while a metallic tasseled bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more attractive for the younger performer who is desiring something other than what they grew up with”, he told a newspaper. “Today's artists are striving for a glamorous, more spectacular, breathtaking, entrance-making statement.”
A Musical Resurgence
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the epicenter of mainstream fashion in 2025 thanks to a global pop icon. Earlier this year, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The bedazzled bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and shimmering headpiece were ideal for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.
She isn't alone. This year, glamorous nods have been adopted by pop stars including Miley Cyrus as they zoomed across concert platforms in sequins, revealing designs and plumes, highlighted against theatrical sets. Her fashion curator Lorenzo Posocco mentioned in an interview with a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the mid-century, the backup dancers waved giant feathered fans.
Drawing from Tradition
These artists and other successful musicians also reference 19th-century performances, including burlesque and dance line references. The final look are vastly different from the 1990s era Britney Spears era of short shirts and baggy pants, and street-style dance moves that came before them.
But not everyone are enthusiastic with this showgirl revival. A former performer, a former Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “used as an broad label covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even modern pop stars.”
The Coveted Classic Look
For millennial and modern stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a famous actress gave a nod to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actress wore a semi-sheer beaded dress made by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, a singer paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn previously to perform at the Grammys. In September, the singer wore a series of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among collectors.
“Showgirls inspire a sense of longing for a bygone era of glitz,” says an archivist, head of special collections at the University of Nevada, who documents the legacy of showgirls. “Currently it is viewed as a sort of ‘toned-down’ allure because it has been modified. It has got all the elegance, the rhinestones and the shine but without the bare skin.”
A Than Simply Fashion: An Symbol of the City
She says the showgirl image are central to the iconography of Las Vegas. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was flanked by two showgirls. While Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-centric productions, Chung says they are still used as an emblem of the city, showing up at gatherings and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a lasting symbol of Vegas glamour,” she says.
The Appeal of Transformation
Nancy Hardy says the magical transformation of a stage character is part of the appeal. This is a notion the singer alludes to in a new documentary series that captures the off-camera action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included intense preparations, gym sessions and numerous shows across dozens of cities, each going on for 3.5 hours.
Hardy recalls her own stage routines as “similar to extreme physical exertion in heels every night”. Her feathered headdress tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the staircase to the platform from the green rooms three floors below in the basement. I had to leave early for my cue so I could recover before I made my entrance. You are sweating the whole time but creating this fantasy that it’s simple and stunning and magical.”
It could be this is where the appeal of the showgirl fantasy really is found. In the complexity of 2025 there is a desire for a break from reality. What better figure to emulate than showgirls, who have always represented fantasy, perfection and a world where nobody makes a mistake.
