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After a long-running stint on the Las Vegas strip, the performers from the production Jubilee! executed their last synchronised kick in 2016. The show, known for its elaborate costumes created by style icon Bob Mackie, ended its run due to falling audience numbers and disappointed reviewers who called it a spectacle “a relic of another era”.

Today, almost a decade later, the showgirl, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is making a comeback.

A King of Glitz

Referred to as the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made theatrical showgirl glitz his trademark look, outfitting everyone from Marilyn Monroe to Madonna. Earlier this month, a “naked” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, far exceeding its initial estimate, while a silver and gold tasseled bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.

“I believe it looks more appealing for the emerging artists who is looking for something other than what they were accustomed to”, he stated in an interview with a media outlet. “New stars are embracing a theatrical, more dramatic, breathtaking, entrance-making statement.”

The Mainstream Resurgence

It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the centre of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 propelled by a global pop icon. In the past few months, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The bedazzled bra and thong, plumed armbands and shimmering headpiece were perfect for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.

The singer is part of a trend. This year, glamorous nods have been incorporated by singers including Miley Cyrus as they whizzed across arena stages in sequins, cut-outs and plumes, highlighted against camp sets. Her fashion curator a fashion expert told a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the mid-century, Lipa’s dancers fluttered giant plumed accessories.

Pulling from History

Lipa, Carpenter and other hitmakers also draw on 19th-century entertainment forms, including vaudeville and dance line references. The final look are worlds away from the 90s pop style of crop tops and baggy pants, and street-style dance moves that came before them.

But certain observers are enthusiastic with this showgirl renaissance. Nancy Hardy, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the early 2000s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “treated as an broad label encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly Taylor Swift.”

A Highly Sought-After Classic Look

For millennial and millennial stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become incredibly sought-after. In 2024, a style icon paid tribute to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actress wore a translucent beaded dress created by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, a singer paid an private amount to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn at an awards show 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 a sense of longing for a past glamour,” says an archivist, an expert at the University of Nevada, who studies the story of showgirls. “Today it is considered a sort of ‘toned-down’ allure because it has been modified. It has got all the elegance, the rhinestones and the sparkle but without the nudity.”

More Than Just Fashion: An Icon of Vegas

Chung says the showgirl image are key to the iconography of Las Vegas. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was flanked by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-based productions, Chung says they are still featured as an symbol of the city, being present at conventions and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a remaining symbol of Vegas glamour,” the expert says.

The Allure of Illusion

The former showgirl says the transformative effect of a stage character is part of the attraction. This idea Taylor Swift references in a latest behind-the-scenes film that shows the off-camera action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling preparations, workouts and numerous shows across multiple nations, each lasting 3.5 hours.

She explains her own stage routines as “like extreme physical exertion in high heels every night”. Her headpiece tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the steps to the performance area from the dressing rooms three floors below in the lower level. I had to leave early for my entrance so I could rest before I performed. You are sweating the whole time but creating this image that it’s simple and beautiful and magical.”

It could be this is where the appeal of the showgirl fantasy really lies. In the complexity of 2025 there is a desire for a break from reality. What better figure to turn to than showgirls, who have always represented dreams, perfection and a realm where nobody falters.