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Following a long-running tenure on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the performers from the spectacle Jubilee! took a final perfectly timed kick in 2016. The production, renowned for its ornate costumes crafted by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, came to an end due to dwindling audience numbers and critical reviewers who called it a spectacle “trapped in time”.

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

The Master of Glitz

Known as the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glamour his defining aesthetic, clothing everyone from Marilyn Monroe to Madonna. Recently, a “naked” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, well over its estimated price, while a silver and gold beaded bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.

“In my view it looks more attractive for the emerging artists who is desiring something other than what they were accustomed to”, he told a newspaper. “Contemporary performers are embracing a show-stopping, more dramatic, attention-grabbing, entrance-making statement.”

The Musical Resurgence

It’s a look that glided all the way to the epicenter of popular culture in 2025 largely due to Taylor Swift. Earlier this year, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The crystal-covered bra and thong, feathered armbands and shimmering headpiece were perfect for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.

She has company. This year, glamorous nods have been embraced by pop stars including Dua Lipa as they whizzed across arena stages in glitter, revealing designs and feathers, spotlighted against camp sets. A top stylist Lorenzo Posocco mentioned in an interview with a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the 1950s, the backup dancers waved giant feathered fans.

Drawing from the Past

Modern stars and other hitmakers also take inspiration from 19th-century entertainment forms, including vaudeville and ensemble references. The outcome are worlds away from the late-century pop style of revealing tops and baggy pants, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that were popular earlier.

But certain observers are enthusiastic with this glamour resurgence. An ex-showgirl, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the 00s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “used as an broad label encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly today's icons.”

The Highly Sought-After Classic Look

For younger and millennial stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a style icon paid tribute to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the actor wore a translucent embellished dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, a singer 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 series of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among collectors.

“The showgirl aesthetic bring about nostalgia for a historical elegance,” says Su Kim Chung, an expert at the a Las Vegas university, who studies the legacy of showgirls. “Today it is seen as a sort of ‘acceptable’ allure because it has been updated. It has got all the elegance, the crystals and the shine but without the exposure.”

A Than Simply Fashion: An Icon of the City

The expert says the showgirl image are integral to the iconography of Sin City. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was surrounded by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-based productions, Jung says they are still featured as an symbol of the city, appearing at corporate events and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a lasting symbol of Vegas glamour,” she says.

An Appeal of Escape

Nancy Hardy says the complete change of a showgirl is part of the allure. This is a notion Swift hints at in a new documentary series that captures the off-camera action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting rehearsals, training and countless performances across 21 countries, each going on for 3.5 hours.

The performer explains her own stage routines as “similar to extreme physical exertion in stilettos every night”. Her feathered headdress was 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the stairs to the stage from the backstage area three floors below in the basement. I had to start early for my cue so I could recover before I went on stage. One is sweating the whole time but creating this fantasy that it’s effortless and beautiful and dreamlike.”

It could be this is where the true allure of the showgirl fantasy really is found. In the chaos of 2025 there is a longing for escapism. Who better to turn to than such icons, who have always embodied make-believe, flawlessness and a realm where nobody falters.