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After a 31-year run on the iconic Vegas strip, the showgirls from the spectacle Jubilee! took a final perfectly timed kick in 2016. The production, famous for its ornate costumes crafted by style icon Bob Mackie, came to an end due to declining audience numbers and unimpressed commentators who labeled it a spectacle “a relic of another era”.

Now, nearly ten years later, the showgirl, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is back.

A Sultan of Glitz

Known as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made theatrical showgirl glamour his signature style, clothing everyone from Hollywood icons to Madonna. In a recent auction, a “barely-there” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, far exceeding its projected value, while a silver and gold fringed bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert 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 told a newspaper. “New stars are embracing a theatrical, more spectacular, attention-grabbing, grand statement.”

A Pop Culture Comeback

It’s a look that glided all the way to the heart of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 thanks to a global pop icon. Earlier this year, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and glittering headpiece were tailor-made for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.

Swift is part of a trend. This year, showgirl references have been incorporated by pop stars including Miley Cyrus as they whizzed across concert platforms in glitter, revealing designs and feathers, illuminated against theatrical sets. A top stylist her creative director told Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the 1950s, her performers fluttered giant ostrich feather fans.

Drawing from Tradition

Lipa, Carpenter and other successful musicians also take inspiration from 19th-century performances, including burlesque and ensemble references. The final look are worlds away from the late-century teen pop of revealing tops and utilitarian trousers, and street-style dance moves that were popular earlier.

But certain observers are convinced with this showgirl revival. Nancy Hardy, a ex- Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the 00s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “employed as an catch-all phrase including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even today's icons.”

The Coveted Retro Look

For millennial and millennial stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a style icon honored to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the star wore a translucent embellished dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, another pop star paid an private amount 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 classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among collectors.

“The showgirl aesthetic evoke a sense of longing for a historical elegance,” says a historian, an expert at the an academic institution, who documents the history of showgirls. “Today it is seen as a sort of ‘safe’ sexy because it has been updated. It has got all the elegance, the sparkles and the glitter but without the exposure.”

A Than Just Style: An Symbol of Las Vegas

She says showgirls are key to the iconography of Vegas. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was surrounded by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-centric productions, the historian says they are still employed as an symbol of the city, appearing at corporate events and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a lasting figure of Vegas spectacle,” she says.

The Allure of Escape

Nancy Hardy says the transformative effect of a showgirl is part of the attraction. This is a notion Taylor Swift hints at in a latest documentary series that captures the backstage action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling rehearsals, gym sessions and countless performances across multiple nations, each running for 3.5 hours.

Hardy describes her own stage routines as “similar to completing an endurance race in stilettos every night”. Her feathered headdress tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the steps to the platform from the green 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 working hard the whole time but creating this illusion that it’s effortless and stunning and dreamlike.”

It could be this is where the true allure of the showgirl fantasy really is found. In the chaos of 2025 there is a longing for a break from reality. Who better to turn to than showgirls, who have always personified dreams, idealism and a world where no one misses a mark.