After a three-decade tenure on the iconic Vegas strip, the showgirls from the spectacle Jubilee! took a final perfectly timed kick in 2016. The show, known for its intricate costumes designed by style icon Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to declining audience numbers and unimpressed reviewers who described it as a spectacle “trapped in time”.
Now, almost a decade later, the showgirl, or at least the showgirl style, is back.
The Master of Glitz
Referred to as the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glitz his signature style, dressing everyone from screen legends to Madonna. In a recent auction, a “naked” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, seven times its initial estimate, while a silver and gold fringed bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more enticing for the emerging artists who is looking for something other than what they grew up with”, he told a media outlet. “Contemporary performers are embracing a show-stopping, more dramatic, show-stopping, entrance-making statement.”
A Mainstream Comeback
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the centre 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 latest record. The crystal-covered bra and thong, feathered armbands and shimmering headpiece were tailor-made for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer has company. This year, showgirl inspirations have been embraced by pop stars including Miley Cyrus as they whizzed across world tours in glitter, cut-outs and feathers, illuminated against camp sets. Lipa’s stylist her creative director told a style publication he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the 1950s, her performers waved giant plumed accessories.
Drawing from Tradition
Lipa, Carpenter and other chart toppers also reference 19th-century entertainment forms, including burlesque and chorus line references. The results are worlds away from the late-century pop style of short shirts and utilitarian trousers, and street-style dance moves that came before them.
But some critics are enthusiastic with this showgirl renaissance. Nancy Hardy, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the early 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “treated as an catch-all phrase encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly Taylor Swift.”
The Coveted Vintage Look
For millennial and young adult stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a style icon paid tribute to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actor wore a see-through embellished dress created by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, Miley Cyrus paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn earlier in the year to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a trio of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a favorite among collectors.
“Showgirls bring about nostalgia for a past glamour,” says Su Kim Chung, a curator at the an academic institution, who researches the legacy of showgirls. “Today it is considered a sort of ‘toned-down’ appeal because it has been modified. It has got all the sophistication, the rhinestones and the shine but without the bare skin.”
A Than Just Style: An Icon of the City
The expert says showgirls are integral to the identity of Sin City. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was surrounded by two showgirls. While Las Vegas does not host any traditional showgirl productions, the historian says they are still used as an emblem of the city, showing up at corporate events and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a remaining icon of Las Vegas spectacle,” the expert says.
The Appeal of Transformation
Nancy Hardy says the complete change of a stage character is part of the allure. It’s something Taylor Swift references in a latest documentary series that documents the off-camera action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling rehearsals, gym sessions and countless shows across multiple nations, each running for 3.5 hours.
Hardy recalls her own stage routines as “like extreme physical exertion in heels every night”. Her feathered 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 lower level. I had to start early for my entrance so I could recover before I went on stage. You are perspiring the whole time but creating this image that it’s easy and beautiful and ethereal.”
Perhaps this is where the fascination of the showgirl fantasy really resides. In the chaos of 2025 there is a craving for fantasy. Is there anyone better to emulate than these performers, who have always embodied dreams, idealism and a universe where nobody falters.
