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After a three-decade stint on the Las Vegas strip, the showgirls from the revue Jubilee! took a final choreographed kick in 2016. The show, famous for its intricate costumes designed by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, came to an end due to declining audience numbers and disappointed reviewers who labeled it a spectacle “trapped in time”.

Today, roughly eight years later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl style, is making a comeback.

The Master of Glitz

Known as the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made over-the-top showgirl glitz his defining aesthetic, dressing everyone from screen legends to pop royalty. In a recent auction, a “barely-there” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, well over its projected value, while a silver and gold fringed bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.

“I think it looks more attractive for the new generation of stars who is looking for something other than what they knew from childhood”, he stated in an interview with a newspaper. “Today's artists are embracing a glamorous, more dramatic, breathtaking, entrance-making statement.”

A Pop Culture Resurgence

It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the centre of mainstream fashion in 2025 thanks to Taylor Swift. Earlier this year, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and glittering headpiece were perfect for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.

The singer is part of a trend. This year, glamorous nods have been adopted by pop stars including Miley Cyrus as they zoomed across world tours in sparkles, cut-outs and feathers, spotlighted against camp sets. Lipa’s stylist Lorenzo Posocco explained to Vogue he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the 50s, Lipa’s dancers fluttered giant feathered fans.

Drawing from Tradition

Lipa, Carpenter and other chart toppers also reference 19th-century entertainment forms, including vaudeville and ensemble references. The results are poles apart from the 90s pop style of crop tops and baggy pants, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that were popular earlier.

But certain observers are enthusiastic with this showgirl revival. An ex-showgirl, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the early 2000s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “employed as an umbrella term including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly today's icons.”

The Highly Sought-After Classic Look

For younger and young adult stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a style icon gave a nod to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the star wore a semi-sheer beaded dress made by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, another pop star paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn previously to perform at the Grammys. In September, the singer wore a trio of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among vintage enthusiasts.

“This style inspire nostalgia for a past glamour,” says an archivist, an expert at the an academic institution, who researches the story of showgirls. “Today it is considered a sort of ‘safe’ allure because it has been updated. It has got all the elegance, the crystals and the sparkle but without the bare skin.”

More Than Just Style: An Symbol of Vegas

Chung says this figure are key to the identity of Sin City. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was accompanied by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-centric productions, Chung says they are still featured as an symbol of the city, appearing at corporate events and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a lasting figure of Vegas glamour,” she says.

The Allure of Transformation

Nancy Hardy says the transformative effect of a stage character is part of the attraction. This is a notion Swift alludes to in a recent behind-the-scenes film that captures the off-camera action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling practice sessions, training and numerous concerts across 21 countries, each lasting 3.5 hours.

She describes her own nights in the spotlight as “like running a marathon in stilettos every night”. Her headpiece 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 underground. I had to head up ahead of time for my moment so I could rest before I made my entrance. One is working hard the whole time but crafting this image that it’s simple and gorgeous and dreamlike.”

It could be this is where the fascination of the showgirl really is found. In the complexity of 2025 there is a desire for a break from reality. Who better to turn to than showgirls, who have always personified dreams, idealism and a universe where no one makes a mistake.