🔗 Share this article

Following a 31-year stint on the Las Vegas strip, the performers from the revue Jubilee! took a final perfectly timed kick in 2016. The production, renowned for its intricate costumes created by style icon Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to falling audience numbers and critical reviewers who described it as a spectacle “trapped in time”.

Currently, nearly ten years later, the showgirl, or at least the showgirl style, is back.

A King of Glitz

Dubbed the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glamour his signature style, dressing everyone from Hollywood icons to Madonna. In a recent auction, a “naked” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, well over its initial estimate, while a shimmering tasseled bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.

“I believe it looks more attractive for the younger performer who is seeking something other than what they were accustomed to”, he explained to a media outlet. “Today's artists are striving for a theatrical, more spectacular, show-stopping, entrance-making statement.”

A Pop Culture Revival

It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the epicenter of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 thanks to a global pop icon. In the past few months, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, ostrich-feather 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, showgirl inspirations have been adopted by singers including Dua Lipa as they zoomed across world tours in sparkles, cut-outs and plumes, highlighted against theatrical sets. A top stylist her creative director explained to a style publication he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the mid-century, her performers waved giant feathered fans.

Drawing from Tradition

Lipa, Carpenter and other chart toppers also take inspiration from historical entertainment forms, including burlesque and ensemble references. The final look are worlds away from the 90s pop style of crop tops and cargo pants, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that were popular earlier.

But certain observers are convinced with this showgirl revival. Nancy Hardy, a ex- Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “treated as an broad label including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even today's icons.”

A Highly Sought-After Vintage Look

For younger and millennial stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become incredibly sought-after. In 2024, a famous actress paid tribute to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the star wore a semi-sheer sequined dress created by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, Miley Cyrus paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn earlier in the year 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 collectors.

“This style inspire a sense of longing for a historical elegance,” says a historian, head of special collections at the a Las Vegas university, who documents the history of showgirls. “Currently it is viewed as a sort of ‘safe’ sexy because it has been adapted. It has got all the glamour, the sparkles and the shine but without the bare skin.”

More Than Just Style: An Icon of Las Vegas

She says showgirls are key to the identity of Las Vegas. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was flanked by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-centric productions, the historian says they are still used as an logo of the city, showing up at conventions and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a remaining figure of Las Vegas spectacle,” the expert says.

An Allure of Escape

Nancy Hardy says the magical transformation of a showgirl persona is part of the attraction. It’s something the singer hints at in a latest documentary series that captures the behind-the-scenes action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting practice sessions, training and numerous shows across 21 countries, each running for 3.5 hours.

Hardy recalls her own showgirl performances as “comparable 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 entrance so I could recover before I performed. You’re sweating the whole time but crafting this image that it’s easy and gorgeous and ethereal.”

Maybe this is where the true allure of the showgirl really resides. In the complexity of 2025 there is a longing for fantasy. What better figure to turn to than showgirls, who have always personified make-believe, perfection and a universe where nobody misses a mark.