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After a 31-year run on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the performers from the production Jubilee! took a final synchronised kick in 2016. The extravaganza, famous for its intricate costumes crafted by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, came to an end due to falling audience numbers and unimpressed critics who called it a spectacle “a relic of another era”.

Today, almost a decade later, the showgirl, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is making a comeback.

The King of Glitz

Dubbed the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made over-the-top showgirl glitz his defining aesthetic, dressing everyone from Hollywood icons to music superstars. Earlier this month, a “barely-there” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, seven times its projected value, while a silver and gold beaded bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.

“In my view it looks more enticing for the emerging artists who is seeking something other than what they knew from childhood”, he stated in an interview with a media outlet. “Contemporary performers are embracing a glamorous, more spectacular, breathtaking, entrance-making statement.”

The Musical Resurgence

It’s a look that glided all the way to the heart of popular culture in 2025 largely due to Taylor Swift. Earlier this year, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The bedazzled bra and thong, plumed armbands and glittering headpiece were tailor-made for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.

The singer has company. This year, glamorous nods have been embraced by pop stars including Sabrina Carpenter as they whizzed across world tours in glitter, revealing designs and ostrich feathers, highlighted against overstated sets. Lipa’s stylist Lorenzo Posocco explained to a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the mid-century, Lipa’s dancers wafted giant feathered fans.

Drawing from History

Modern stars and other hitmakers also take inspiration from classic performances, including classic theater and ensemble references. The final look are poles apart from the late-century teen pop of crop tops and cargo pants, and urban dance moves that preceded this trend.

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

A Highly Sought-After Classic Style

For millennial and millennial stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a famous actress paid tribute to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the actress wore a semi-sheer embellished dress made by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, Miley Cyrus paid an significant price to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn previously to perform at the Grammys. In September, Sabrina Carpenter wore a trio of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a favorite among fashion collectors.

“Showgirls bring about nostalgia for a historical elegance,” says Su Kim Chung, a curator at the an academic institution, who researches the history of showgirls. “Today it is seen as a sort of ‘safe’ sexy because it has been adapted. 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

Chung says this figure are integral to the iconography of Sin City. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was flanked by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-based productions, Chung says they are still featured as an logo of the city, being present at conventions and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a lasting figure of Las Vegas glamour,” Chung says.

An Appeal of Illusion

The former showgirl says the complete change of a stage character is part of the attraction. It’s something Swift alludes to in a new documentary series that shows the backstage action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting practice sessions, workouts and numerous concerts across multiple nations, each running for 3.5 hours.

The performer recalls her own showgirl performances as “similar to running a marathon in heels every night”. Her headpiece was 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the steps to the stage from the green rooms three floors below in the underground. I had to start early for my entrance so I could catch my breath before I made my entrance. You are perspiring the whole time but maintaining this illusion that it’s simple and stunning and dreamlike.”

Perhaps this is where the appeal of the showgirl fantasy really is found. In the complexity of 2025 there is a longing for fantasy. Is there anyone better to look to than such icons, who have always personified fantasy, flawlessness and a world where nobody falters.