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After a long-running tenure on the iconic Vegas strip, the performers from the production Jubilee! gave one last choreographed kick in 2016. The production, renowned for its elaborate costumes created by style icon Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to dwindling audience numbers and unimpressed reviewers who labeled it a spectacle “a relic of another era”.

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

A Master of Sparkle

Known as the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made over-the-top stage sparkle his signature style, outfitting everyone from Hollywood icons to Madonna. In a recent auction, a “see-through” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, well over its initial estimate, while a silver and gold tasseled bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.

“In my view it looks more enticing for the younger performer who is looking for something other than what they grew up with”, he told a publication. “Today's artists are embracing a show-stopping, more spectacular, attention-grabbing, grand statement.”

The Pop Culture Comeback

It’s a look that glided all the way to the heart of mainstream fashion in 2025 largely due to Taylor Swift. Earlier this year, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, plumed armbands and glittering headpiece were perfect for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.

Swift is part of a trend. This year, showgirl references have been embraced by pop stars including Sabrina Carpenter as they danced across world tours in sequins, cut-outs and plumes, spotlighted against overstated sets. A top stylist Lorenzo Posocco mentioned in an interview with Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the mid-century, Lipa’s dancers wafted giant plumed accessories.

Pulling from Tradition

Modern stars and other chart toppers also draw on classic entertainment forms, including classic theater and chorus line references. The final look are worlds away from the 90s Britney Spears era of crop tops and utilitarian trousers, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that came before them.

But some critics are enthusiastic with this showgirl renaissance. An ex-showgirl, a ex- Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the 2000s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “treated as an umbrella term covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently today's icons.”

The Coveted Classic Look

For gen Z and millennial stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become incredibly sought-after. In 2024, a style icon honored to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actor wore a semi-sheer embellished dress created by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, a singer paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie tasseled 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.

“Showgirls evoke nostalgia for a bygone era of glitz,” says Su Kim Chung, a curator at the a Las Vegas university, who studies the story of showgirls. “Today it is seen as a sort of ‘toned-down’ sexy because it has been updated. It has got all the sophistication, the rhinestones and the sparkle but without the bare skin.”

A Than Just Style: An Symbol of Las Vegas

The expert says this figure are integral to the imagery of Las Vegas. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was accompanied by two showgirls. While Las Vegas no longer has any traditional showgirl productions, the historian says they are still featured as an symbol of the city, being present at conventions and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a lasting figure of Vegas glamour,” she says.

An Appeal of Illusion

Nancy Hardy says the transformative effect of a stage character is part of the attraction. It’s something Taylor Swift hints at in a recent documentary series that captures the off-camera action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting preparations, gym sessions and 149 performances across multiple nations, each lasting 3.5 hours.

The performer explains her own stage routines as “comparable to extreme physical exertion in heels every night”. Her headpiece tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the staircase to the performance area from the green rooms three floors below in the lower level. I had to start early for my cue so I could rest before I made my entrance. You are perspiring the whole time but crafting this image that it’s simple and beautiful and magical.”

Perhaps this is where the appeal of the showgirl fantasy really lies. In the chaos of 2025 there is a desire for escapism. Who better to look to than such icons, who have always represented dreams, perfection and a realm where nobody falters.