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Following a three-decade run on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the showgirls from the revue Jubilee! took a final choreographed kick in 2016. The extravaganza, famous for its intricate costumes created by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, ended its run due to falling audience numbers and critical reviewers who called it a spectacle “trapped in time”.

Now, almost a decade later, the showgirl, or at least the showgirl style, is making a comeback.

The Master of Glitz

Dubbed the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made theatrical stage sparkle his defining aesthetic, clothing everyone from screen legends to music superstars. Earlier this month, a “see-through” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, far exceeding its estimated price, while a silver and gold beaded bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.

“I think it looks more appealing for the younger performer who is desiring something other than what they grew up with”, he told a publication. “Contemporary performers are pushing toward a show-stopping, more theatrical, attention-grabbing, grand statement.”

The Mainstream Revival

It’s a look that glided all the way to the heart of mainstream fashion in 2025 largely due to a global pop icon. Recently, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The bedazzled bra and thong, feathered armbands and glittering headpiece were tailor-made for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.

The singer has company. This year, glamorous nods have been adopted by music artists including Sabrina Carpenter as they danced across world tours in glitter, revealing designs and ostrich feathers, spotlighted against theatrical sets. A top stylist Lorenzo Posocco told Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the mid-century, Lipa’s dancers wafted giant plumed accessories.

Pulling from the Past

Lipa, Carpenter and other hitmakers also draw on historical entertainment forms, including burlesque and dance line references. The final look are worlds away from the late-century pop style of short shirts and baggy pants, and street-style dance moves that came before them.

But some critics are on board with this showgirl revival. Nancy Hardy, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the 00s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “treated as an catch-all phrase including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly Taylor Swift.”

The Coveted Vintage Style

For younger and young adult stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a style icon paid tribute to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the actress wore a see-through beaded dress created by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, another pop star paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn at an awards show to perform at the Grammys. In September, the singer wore a collection of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among fashion collectors.

“Showgirls evoke fond memories for a historical elegance,” says a historian, an expert at the University of Nevada, who documents the history of showgirls. “Today it is seen as a sort of ‘acceptable’ allure because it has been adapted. It has got all the sophistication, the rhinestones and the glitter but without the bare skin.”

A Than Simply Fashion: An Icon of the City

The expert says showgirls are central to the iconography of Vegas. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was surrounded by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas does not host any showgirl-based productions, the historian says they are still employed as an emblem of the city, being present at conventions and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a lasting figure of Vegas glitz and glamour,” the expert says.

An Appeal of Escape

Hardy says the magical transformation of a showgirl is part of the allure. This idea Taylor Swift hints at in a latest documentary series that shows the behind-the-scenes action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting practice sessions, training and countless concerts across dozens of cities, each lasting 3.5 hours.

Hardy recalls her own nights in the spotlight as “like running a marathon in high heels every night”. Her headpiece was 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the steps to the platform from the backstage area three floors below in the lower level. I had to head up ahead of time for my cue so I could catch my breath before I performed. You are working hard the whole time but crafting this fantasy that it’s easy and gorgeous and ethereal.”

It could be this is where the true allure of the showgirl really resides. In the chaos of 2025 there is a longing for escapism. Who better to emulate than showgirls, who have always represented dreams, perfection and a world where no one makes a mistake.