After a long-running run on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the performers from the production Jubilee! took a final perfectly timed kick in 2016. The show, famous for its elaborate costumes designed by style icon Bob Mackie, came to an end due to declining audience numbers and unimpressed reviewers who called it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Currently, almost a decade later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl style, is experiencing a revival.
The King of Sequins
Referred to as the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made theatrical showgirl glitz his defining aesthetic, clothing everyone from Marilyn Monroe to pop royalty. Recently, a “see-through” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, well over its estimated price, while a silver and gold fringed bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more attractive for the emerging artists who is looking for something other than what they knew from childhood”, he told a publication. “New stars are striving for a show-stopping, more dramatic, show-stopping, memorable statement.”
The Mainstream Comeback
It’s a look that glided all the way to the epicenter of popular culture in 2025 thanks to a global pop icon. Earlier this year, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The bedazzled bra and thong, feathered armbands and shimmering 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 singers including Miley Cyrus as they danced across arena stages in sequins, revealing designs and ostrich feathers, highlighted against theatrical sets. Her fashion curator her creative director explained to Vogue he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the mid-century, the backup dancers wafted giant feathered fans.
Drawing from Tradition
Modern stars and other chart toppers also reference classic entertainment forms, including vaudeville and chorus line references. The final look are vastly different from the late-century pop style of short shirts and cargo pants, and street-style dance moves that came before them.
But some critics are convinced with this glamour resurgence. Nancy Hardy, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the 2000s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “used as an broad label encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently today's icons.”
A Highly Sought-After Retro Style
For millennial and young adult stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a style icon paid tribute to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the star wore a semi-sheer sequined dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, a singer paid an private amount to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn previously to perform at the Grammys. In September, Sabrina Carpenter wore a series of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among fashion collectors.
“This style inspire a sense of longing for a historical elegance,” says an archivist, a curator at the an academic institution, who studies the legacy of showgirls. “Today it is seen as a sort of ‘toned-down’ sexy because it has been modified. It has got all the sophistication, the sparkles and the shine but without the nudity.”
More Than Just Style: An Symbol of Las Vegas
Chung says showgirls are key to the identity of Vegas. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was accompanied by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-centric productions, the historian says they are still used as an emblem of the city, being present at corporate events and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a remaining symbol of Vegas spectacle,” the expert says.
The Allure of Transformation
The former showgirl says the complete change of a showgirl persona is part of the attraction. It’s something the singer hints at in a recent docuseries that shows the behind-the-scenes action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting practice sessions, training and 149 performances across multiple nations, each lasting 3.5 hours.
Hardy explains her own showgirl performances as “similar to running a marathon in heels every night”. Her feathered headdress tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the stairs to the platform from the backstage area three floors below in the underground. I had to leave early for my entrance so I could rest before I went on stage. You are perspiring the whole time but creating this fantasy that it’s simple and stunning and ethereal.”
Maybe this is where the appeal of the showgirl really resides. In the chaos of 2025 there is a longing for escapism. Who better to turn to than such icons, who have always personified make-believe, perfection and a realm where nobody falters.
