🔗 Share this article

After a long-running stint on the iconic Vegas strip, the dancers from the production Jubilee! took a final synchronised kick in 2016. The show, renowned for its intricate costumes designed by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, came to an end due to declining audience numbers and critical reviewers who described it as a spectacle “trapped in time”.

Currently, roughly eight years later, the showgirl persona, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is experiencing a revival.

A Master of Sequins

Referred to as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glamour his signature style, outfitting everyone from screen legends to music superstars. Recently, a “barely-there” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, seven times its projected value, while a metallic tasseled bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.

“I believe it looks more enticing for the emerging artists who is desiring something other than what they grew up with”, he stated in an interview with a publication. “Today's artists are pushing toward a show-stopping, more dramatic, show-stopping, entrance-making statement.”

The Mainstream Revival

It’s a look that glided all the way to the epicenter of popular culture in 2025 largely due to a chart-topping superstar. In the past few months, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The crystal-covered bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and shimmering headpiece were tailor-made for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.

She is part of a trend. This year, glamorous nods have been embraced by pop stars including Miley Cyrus as they danced across world tours in sequins, strategic openings and plumes, illuminated against overstated sets. Lipa’s stylist Lorenzo Posocco told a style publication he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the 1950s, Lipa’s dancers wafted giant plumed accessories.

Drawing from History

Modern stars and other successful musicians also draw on classic entertainment forms, including classic theater and dance line references. The results are poles apart from the late-century pop style of revealing tops and cargo pants, and street-style dance moves that were popular earlier.

But not everyone are convinced with this glamour resurgence. An ex-showgirl, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the early 2000s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “treated as an broad label covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even modern pop stars.”

A Highly Sought-After Vintage Look

For younger and millennial stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a style icon gave a nod to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actor wore a translucent sequined dress created by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, a singer paid an significant price to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn earlier in the year to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a collection of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among collectors.

“Showgirls evoke fond memories for a past glamour,” says Su Kim Chung, head of special collections at the a Las Vegas university, who documents the story of showgirls. “Today it is considered a sort of ‘safe’ sexy because it has been modified. It has got all the glamour, the crystals and the sparkle but without the exposure.”

More Than Simply Style: An Icon of Vegas

She says showgirls are key to the identity of Sin City. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was flanked by two showgirls. While Las Vegas does not host any showgirl-centric productions, the historian says they are still employed as an emblem of the city, appearing at gatherings and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a enduring figure of Vegas glamour,” she says.

The Appeal of Transformation

Nancy Hardy says the transformative effect of a stage character is part of the allure. It’s something Taylor Swift hints at in a latest docuseries that documents the backstage action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting preparations, workouts and 149 shows across 21 countries, each lasting 3.5 hours.

She describes her own stage routines as “comparable to extreme physical exertion in high heels every night”. Her headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the staircase to the stage from the backstage area three floors below in the lower level. I had to head up ahead of time for my entrance so I could recover before I made my entrance. You’re working hard the whole time but crafting this image that it’s easy and beautiful and ethereal.”

Perhaps this is where the fascination of the showgirl fantasy really is found. In the complexity of 2025 there is a longing for a break from reality. What better figure to look to than showgirls, who have always personified make-believe, perfection and a world where nobody falters.