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After a long-running run on the Las Vegas strip, the dancers from the spectacle Jubilee! executed their last choreographed kick in 2016. The production, famous for its elaborate costumes created by style icon Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to dwindling audience numbers and critical commentators who described it as a spectacle “a relic of another era”.

Now, almost a decade later, the showgirl persona, or at least the showgirl style, is back.

A King of Sequins

Known as the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made over-the-top showgirl glitz his trademark look, clothing everyone from screen legends to music superstars. In a recent auction, a “naked” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, seven times its estimated price, while a shimmering tasseled bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.

“In my view it looks more appealing for the younger performer who is seeking something other than what they knew from childhood”, he explained to a newspaper. “Today's artists are embracing a show-stopping, more theatrical, show-stopping, grand statement.”

A Mainstream Resurgence

It’s a look that made its way all the way to the epicenter of mainstream fashion in 2025 thanks to a chart-topping superstar. Earlier this year, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The bedazzled bra and thong, plumed armbands and shimmering headpiece were tailor-made for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.

Swift isn't alone. This year, showgirl inspirations have been incorporated by pop stars including Miley Cyrus as they danced across concert platforms in sparkles, strategic openings and ostrich feathers, highlighted against theatrical sets. Lipa’s stylist her creative director told a style publication he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the mid-century, the backup dancers wafted giant feathered fans.

Pulling from History

Modern stars and other chart toppers also reference classic entertainment forms, including vaudeville and chorus line references. The final look are poles apart from the 1990s era Britney Spears era of short shirts and baggy pants, and urban dance moves that preceded this trend.

But not everyone are enthusiastic with this showgirl revival. A former performer, a ex- Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “treated as an broad label including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently modern pop stars.”

The Coveted Classic Look

For gen Z and millennial stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, Zendaya paid tribute to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the star wore a see-through sequined dress made by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, another pop star 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 popular item among collectors.

“The showgirl aesthetic inspire nostalgia for a bygone era of glitz,” says Su Kim Chung, head of special collections at the University of Nevada, who documents the history of showgirls. “Today it is viewed as a sort of ‘acceptable’ allure because it has been adapted. It has got all the elegance, the sparkles and the shine but without the exposure.”

More Than Just Fashion: An Symbol of the City

Chung says the showgirl image are key to the iconography of Las Vegas. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was accompanied by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas does not host any showgirl-centric productions, Jung says they are still featured as an symbol of the city, being present at corporate events and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a lasting icon of Vegas spectacle,” the expert says.

An Appeal of Illusion

The former showgirl says the magical transformation of a showgirl persona is part of the allure. It’s something Taylor Swift references in a new behind-the-scenes film that captures the off-camera action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting preparations, gym sessions and countless performances across multiple nations, each lasting 3.5 hours.

She explains her own nights in the spotlight as “similar to completing an endurance race in heels every night”. Her headpiece was 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the stairs to the platform from the green rooms three floors below in the basement. I had to leave early for my moment so I could catch my breath before I performed. You’re perspiring the whole time but creating this fantasy that it’s easy and stunning and magical.”

Perhaps this is where the appeal of the showgirl really is found. In the chaos of 2025 there is a longing for a break from reality. What better figure to look to than such icons, who have always represented make-believe, perfection and a universe where no one makes a mistake.