🔗 Share this article

Following a 31-year tenure on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the dancers from the spectacle Jubilee! gave one last synchronised kick in 2016. The extravaganza, known for its ornate costumes crafted by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, came to an end due to declining audience numbers and critical commentators who called it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.

Currently, nearly ten years later, showgirls, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is experiencing a revival.

The Sultan of Glitz

Known as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made theatrical showgirl glitz his signature style, dressing everyone from Hollywood icons to Madonna. Earlier this month, a “see-through” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, seven times its estimated price, while a metallic beaded bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.

“I think it looks more attractive for the emerging artists who is seeking something other than what they knew from childhood”, he stated in an interview with a newspaper. “Today's artists are embracing a theatrical, more spectacular, breathtaking, memorable statement.”

A Pop Culture Resurgence

It’s a look that glided all the way to the epicenter of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 thanks to a chart-topping superstar. Recently, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and shimmering headpiece were perfect for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.

The singer has company. This year, glamorous nods have been embraced by pop stars including Dua Lipa as they whizzed across world tours in sparkles, revealing designs and plumes, spotlighted against theatrical sets. A top stylist Lorenzo Posocco mentioned in an interview with Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the 1950s, the backup dancers wafted giant plumed accessories.

Drawing from History

Lipa, Carpenter and other chart toppers also draw on historical entertainment forms, including vaudeville and dance line references. The results are worlds away from the late-century pop style of revealing tops and utilitarian trousers, and street-style dance moves that were popular earlier.

But some critics are on board with this glamour resurgence. An ex-showgirl, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the 2000s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “treated as an catch-all phrase encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently today's icons.”

The Coveted Classic Style

For younger and millennial stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a famous actress honored to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the actress wore a semi-sheer beaded dress created by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, a singer paid an significant price to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn at an awards show to perform at the Grammys. In September, Sabrina Carpenter wore a series of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among vintage enthusiasts.

“The showgirl aesthetic evoke fond memories for a bygone era of glitz,” says an archivist, head of special collections at the an academic institution, who researches the legacy of showgirls. “Today it is viewed as a sort of ‘safe’ allure because it has been modified. It has got all the glamour, the sparkles and the glitter but without the bare skin.”

A Than Just Fashion: An Symbol of Vegas

She says this figure are key to the iconography of Sin City. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was surrounded by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-centric productions, the historian says they are still featured as an emblem of the city, showing up at gatherings and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a enduring symbol of Vegas spectacle,” the expert says.

An Allure of Transformation

Nancy Hardy says the magical transformation of a stage character is part of the allure. This is a notion the singer hints at in a new behind-the-scenes film that documents the off-camera action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting rehearsals, gym sessions and numerous shows across 21 countries, each running for 3.5 hours.

The performer recalls her own nights in the spotlight as “similar to completing an endurance race in heels every night”. Her headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the stairs to the platform from the dressing rooms three floors below in the lower level. I had to head up ahead of time for my entrance so I could recover before I performed. You are perspiring the whole time but crafting this image that it’s easy and beautiful and magical.”

Perhaps this is where the true allure of the showgirl fantasy really lies. In the busyness of 2025 there is a longing for fantasy. Who better to look to than such icons, who have always embodied fantasy, idealism and a world where nobody misses a mark.