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After a 31-year stint on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the showgirls from the production Jubilee! gave one last synchronised kick in 2016. The production, famous for its elaborate costumes created by style icon Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to falling audience numbers and disappointed critics who labeled it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.

Today, roughly eight years later, the showgirl persona, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is making a comeback.

The Sultan of Sequins

Known as the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made over-the-top stage sparkle his signature style, outfitting everyone from Marilyn Monroe to music superstars. Recently, a “see-through” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, well over its initial estimate, while a silver and gold beaded bodysuit with reflective 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 looking for something other than what they knew from childhood”, he explained to a media outlet. “Contemporary performers are striving for a show-stopping, more spectacular, show-stopping, memorable statement.”

A Pop Culture Comeback

It’s a look that made its way all the way to the centre of popular culture in 2025 propelled by a chart-topping superstar. Recently, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The crystal-covered bra and thong, plumed armbands and sparkly headpiece were tailor-made for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.

The singer has company. This year, showgirl inspirations have been adopted by music artists including Miley Cyrus as they danced across world tours in sequins, strategic openings and ostrich feathers, illuminated against camp sets. Lipa’s stylist her creative director mentioned in an interview with a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the 50s, the backup dancers wafted giant feathered fans.

Drawing from Tradition

Lipa, Carpenter and other hitmakers also draw on 19th-century entertainment forms, including classic theater and ensemble references. The results are vastly different from the 90s teen pop of short shirts and utilitarian trousers, and street-style dance moves that came before them.

But some critics are convinced with this showgirl revival. A former performer, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the 00s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word term is being “employed as an umbrella term encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly Taylor Swift.”

The Coveted Vintage Style

For millennial and millennial stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, Zendaya gave a nod to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actress wore a semi-sheer beaded dress created by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, Miley Cyrus paid an significant price to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn at an awards show to perform at the Grammys. In September, Sabrina Carpenter wore a collection of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a favorite among fashion collectors.

“Showgirls inspire a sense of longing for a historical elegance,” says an archivist, head of special collections at the an academic institution, who documents the legacy of showgirls. “Now it is considered a sort of ‘safe’ allure because it has been updated. It has got all the glamour, the sparkles and the shine but without the bare skin.”

More Than Simply Fashion: An Symbol of the City

She says showgirls are key to the identity of Las Vegas. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was surrounded by two showgirls. While Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-based productions, the historian says they are still employed as an logo of the city, appearing at gatherings and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a lasting figure of Las Vegas glamour,” Chung says.

An Appeal of Transformation

Hardy says the transformative effect of a showgirl persona is part of the attraction. It’s something Swift references in a new docuseries that captures the off-camera action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting preparations, training and numerous shows across multiple nations, each lasting 3.5 hours.

The performer explains her own showgirl performances as “similar to extreme physical exertion in stilettos every night”. Her feathered headdress tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the stairs to the platform from the dressing rooms three floors below in the lower level. I had to head up ahead of time for my entrance so I could catch my breath before I made my entrance. One is sweating the whole time but creating this image that it’s easy and gorgeous and dreamlike.”

Perhaps this is where the appeal of the showgirl fantasy really resides. In the complexity of 2025 there is a longing for escapism. Who better to emulate than such icons, who have always personified make-believe, flawlessness and a world where no one misses a mark.