After a 31-year tenure on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the performers from the spectacle Jubilee! gave one last choreographed kick in 2016. The extravaganza, renowned for its intricate costumes crafted by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to dwindling audience numbers and critical critics who described it as a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Today, roughly eight years later, the showgirl persona, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is experiencing a revival.
The Sultan of Glitz
Known as the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made theatrical stage sparkle his signature style, dressing everyone from screen legends to music superstars. Recently, a “barely-there” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, seven times its estimated price, while a shimmering beaded bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more appealing for the emerging artists who is seeking something other than what they grew up with”, he explained to a media outlet. “Contemporary performers are embracing a glamorous, more spectacular, show-stopping, entrance-making statement.”
The Musical Comeback
It’s a look that glided all the way to the epicenter of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 thanks to a chart-topping superstar. Earlier this year, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The bedazzled bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and shimmering headpiece were perfect for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer isn't alone. This year, showgirl inspirations have been embraced by music artists including Miley Cyrus as they whizzed across arena stages in sequins, strategic openings and ostrich feathers, highlighted against camp sets. A top stylist her creative director explained to a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the 1950s, the backup dancers fluttered giant plumed accessories.
Drawing from History
Modern stars and other successful musicians also take inspiration from historical entertainment forms, including burlesque and ensemble references. The outcome are worlds away from the late-century Britney Spears era of revealing tops and baggy pants, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that were popular earlier.
But not everyone are convinced with this showgirl revival. Nancy Hardy, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the 2000s says the trend is “confusing”. 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 even modern pop stars.”
A Highly Sought-After Vintage Look
For millennial and millennial stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a style icon honored to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the star wore a translucent embellished dress made by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, 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 vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among fashion collectors.
“The showgirl aesthetic inspire nostalgia for a historical elegance,” says a historian, head of special collections at the an academic institution, who studies the story of showgirls. “Now it is viewed as a sort of ‘safe’ allure because it has been adapted. It has got all the elegance, the sparkles and the glitter but without the exposure.”
A Than Simply Fashion: An Icon of Las Vegas
The expert says this figure are integral to the iconography of Las Vegas. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was flanked by two showgirls. While Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-based productions, the historian says they are still employed as an logo of the city, appearing at corporate events and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a enduring symbol of Vegas glitz and glamour,” Chung says.
The Allure of Illusion
The former showgirl says the complete change of a showgirl persona is part of the appeal. This is a notion the singer alludes to in a new docuseries that shows the backstage action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting preparations, training and countless concerts across multiple nations, each lasting 3.5 hours.
The performer explains her own showgirl performances as “similar to running a marathon in heels every night”. Her headpiece tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the steps to the stage from the backstage area three floors below in the lower level. I had to head up ahead of time for my moment so I could catch my breath before I performed. You’re working hard the whole time but crafting this illusion that it’s easy and beautiful and magical.”
Perhaps this is where the appeal of the showgirl fantasy really is found. In the chaos of 2025 there is a craving for fantasy. What better figure to emulate than such icons, who have always personified make-believe, idealism and a world where nobody misses a mark.
