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After a 31-year run on the iconic Vegas strip, the dancers from the revue Jubilee! gave one last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The production, renowned for its intricate costumes created by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to falling audience numbers and critical commentators who called it a spectacle “a relic of another era”.

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

The Sultan of Glitz

Referred to as the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made theatrical showgirl glamour his signature style, clothing everyone from Marilyn Monroe to Madonna. In a recent auction, a “naked” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, far exceeding its estimated price, while a silver and gold beaded bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.

“I think it looks more enticing for the new generation of stars who is seeking something other than what they grew up with”, he stated in an interview with a newspaper. “New stars are striving for a theatrical, more dramatic, attention-grabbing, grand statement.”

The Pop Culture Comeback

It’s a look that made its way all the way to the centre of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 largely due to a chart-topping superstar. In the past few months, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The bedazzled bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and glittering headpiece were perfect for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.

Swift isn't alone. This year, showgirl references have been adopted by pop stars including Dua Lipa as they zoomed across concert platforms in sequins, cut-outs and feathers, highlighted against camp sets. Lipa’s stylist Lorenzo Posocco mentioned in an interview with a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the 50s, her performers wafted giant feathered fans.

Pulling from the Past

These artists and other hitmakers also reference 19th-century entertainment forms, including vaudeville and chorus line references. The final look are poles apart from the 1990s era pop style of revealing tops and baggy pants, and urban dance moves that preceded this trend.

But some critics are enthusiastic with this glamour resurgence. An ex-showgirl, a former Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the early 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “treated as an umbrella term including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently modern pop stars.”

The Highly Sought-After Vintage Style

For gen Z and millennial stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a style icon honored to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actor wore a translucent beaded dress created by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, Miley Cyrus paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn earlier in the year 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 favorite among fashion collectors.

“This style evoke nostalgia for a historical elegance,” says a historian, head of special collections at the an academic institution, who studies the story of showgirls. “Now it is seen as a sort of ‘toned-down’ appeal because it has been updated. It has got all the elegance, the crystals and the shine but without the exposure.”

More Than Just Style: An Icon of the City

The expert says showgirls are key to the imagery of Vegas. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was accompanied by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-centric productions, Jung says they are still employed as an logo of the city, appearing at corporate events and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a enduring figure of Vegas glamour,” she says.

An Allure of Transformation

Nancy Hardy says the complete change of a stage character is part of the attraction. This idea the singer alludes to in a recent docuseries that captures the backstage action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting practice sessions, workouts and numerous performances across dozens of cities, each lasting 3.5 hours.

Hardy recalls her own nights in the spotlight as “like completing an endurance race in stilettos every night”. Her headpiece weighed 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the stairs to the platform from the dressing rooms three floors below in the basement. I had to leave early for my moment so I could rest before I made my entrance. You are working hard the whole time but maintaining this illusion that it’s easy and stunning and ethereal.”

Perhaps this is where the appeal of the showgirl fantasy really lies. In the complexity of 2025 there is a longing for fantasy. Is there anyone better to emulate than these performers, who have always embodied dreams, idealism and a world where no one misses a mark.