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After a long-running run on the Las Vegas strip, the performers from the production Jubilee! gave one last synchronised kick in 2016. The show, famous for its ornate costumes created by style icon Bob Mackie, ended its run due to declining audience numbers and unimpressed reviewers who labeled it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.

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

The King of Glitz

Known as the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made theatrical stage sparkle his trademark look, outfitting everyone from Hollywood icons to Madonna. Earlier this month, a “naked” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, seven times its initial estimate, while a metallic fringed bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.

“In my view it looks more attractive for the emerging artists who is seeking something other than what they knew from childhood”, he told a newspaper. “New stars are striving for a glamorous, more theatrical, show-stopping, grand statement.”

The Pop Culture Revival

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 classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, plumed armbands and shimmering headpiece were ideal for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.

Swift has company. This year, showgirl inspirations have been adopted by music artists including Dua Lipa as they whizzed across arena stages in sequins, cut-outs and plumes, illuminated against camp sets. A top stylist a fashion expert explained to Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the 50s, her performers fluttered giant plumed accessories.

Pulling from the Past

Lipa, Carpenter and other successful musicians also reference classic performances, including vaudeville and chorus line references. The final look are poles apart from the 1990s era Britney Spears era of short shirts and utilitarian trousers, and street-style dance moves that were popular earlier.

But certain observers are enthusiastic with this showgirl revival. Nancy Hardy, a former 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 millennial and young adult stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become incredibly sought-after. In 2024, a style icon honored to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the actress wore a see-through sequined dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, another pop star 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, Carpenter wore a collection of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a favorite among fashion collectors.

“Showgirls evoke nostalgia for a past glamour,” says Su Kim Chung, a curator at the an academic institution, who researches the story of showgirls. “Today it is viewed as a sort of ‘toned-down’ allure because it has been updated. It has got all the elegance, the rhinestones and the glitter but without the bare skin.”

A Than Just Fashion: An Icon of Vegas

Chung says showgirls are central to the imagery of Las Vegas. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was flanked by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas does not host any traditional showgirl productions, Jung says they are still employed as an symbol of the city, appearing at conventions and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a remaining symbol of Las Vegas spectacle,” the expert says.

An Allure of Illusion

The former showgirl says the magical transformation of a showgirl persona is part of the attraction. This is a notion Taylor Swift hints at in a latest docuseries that shows the off-camera action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting preparations, gym sessions and numerous performances across multiple nations, each lasting 3.5 hours.

Hardy recalls her own stage routines as “like running a marathon in heels every night”. Her feathered headdress was 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the steps to the stage from the dressing rooms three floors below in the basement. I had to start early for my moment so I could catch my breath before I performed. You’re perspiring the whole time but crafting this illusion that it’s simple and stunning and magical.”

Maybe this is where the true allure of the showgirl fantasy really is found. In the complexity of 2025 there is a craving for fantasy. What better figure to emulate than showgirls, who have always embodied dreams, idealism and a world where nobody misses a mark.