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After a long-running run on the Las Vegas strip, the dancers from the spectacle Jubilee! gave one last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The show, renowned for its ornate costumes crafted by style icon Bob Mackie, came to an end due to dwindling audience numbers and critical commentators who called it a spectacle “a relic of another era”.

Currently, almost a decade later, showgirls, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is experiencing a revival.

The Sultan of Glitz

Referred to as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made over-the-top showgirl glamour his defining aesthetic, clothing everyone from Hollywood icons to music superstars. Recently, a “barely-there” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, well over its initial estimate, while a metallic fringed bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.

“I believe it looks more enticing for the new generation of stars who is desiring something other than what they were accustomed to”, he explained to a media outlet. “Contemporary performers are striving for a glamorous, more dramatic, breathtaking, entrance-making statement.”

The Pop Culture Resurgence

It’s a look that made its way all the way to the heart of popular culture in 2025 largely due to a global pop icon. Recently, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, plumed armbands and shimmering headpiece were perfect for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.

The singer is part of a trend. This year, showgirl inspirations have been incorporated by pop stars including Miley Cyrus as they zoomed across arena stages in sparkles, revealing designs and feathers, illuminated against overstated sets. Lipa’s stylist her creative director explained to Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the 1950s, Lipa’s dancers wafted giant ostrich feather fans.

Drawing from the Past

These artists and other hitmakers also reference classic entertainment forms, including burlesque and dance line references. The outcome are poles apart from the 1990s era pop style of short shirts and baggy pants, and street-style dance moves that came before them.

But not everyone are convinced with this glamour resurgence. An ex-showgirl, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the early 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “used as an broad label encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even Taylor Swift.”

The Coveted Classic Look

For gen Z and millennial stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become incredibly sought-after. In 2024, a style icon gave a nod to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actress wore a translucent beaded dress created by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, another pop star paid an private amount to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn at an awards show to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a trio of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among collectors.

“The showgirl aesthetic evoke nostalgia for a past glamour,” says an archivist, an expert at the a Las Vegas university, who documents the story of showgirls. “Currently it is viewed as a sort of ‘safe’ allure because it has been adapted. It has got all the elegance, the sparkles and the shine but without the bare skin.”

More Than Simply Style: An Symbol of Las Vegas

Chung says showgirls are central to the imagery of Las Vegas. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was accompanied by two showgirls. While Las Vegas does not host any showgirl-based productions, Jung says they are still employed as an symbol of the city, being present at gatherings and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a lasting icon of Vegas glamour,” Chung says.

An Allure of Illusion

Nancy Hardy says the transformative effect of a showgirl is part of the attraction. This is a notion Swift alludes to in a latest docuseries that shows the behind-the-scenes action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting rehearsals, training and numerous concerts across 21 countries, each running for 3.5 hours.

She describes her own nights in the spotlight as “like running a marathon in heels every night”. Her headdress tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the staircase to the platform from the green rooms three floors below in the underground. I had to leave early for my moment so I could catch my breath before I made my entrance. You’re perspiring the whole time but crafting this fantasy that it’s easy and stunning and magical.”

Perhaps this is where the fascination of the showgirl really lies. In the chaos of 2025 there is a craving for fantasy. What better figure to emulate than such icons, who have always represented fantasy, perfection and a realm where no one makes a mistake.