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Following a 31-year tenure on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the dancers from the spectacle Jubilee! took a final synchronised kick in 2016. The show, known for its ornate costumes created by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to declining audience numbers and disappointed critics who labeled it a spectacle “trapped in time”.

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

The Sultan of Glitz

Dubbed the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made over-the-top stage sparkle his defining aesthetic, clothing everyone from screen legends to Madonna. In a recent auction, a “see-through” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, far exceeding its estimated price, while a metallic fringed bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.

“I think it looks more appealing for the emerging artists who is desiring something other than what they were accustomed to”, he explained to a newspaper. “Contemporary performers are striving for a show-stopping, more dramatic, show-stopping, memorable statement.”

A Mainstream Comeback

It’s a look that made its way all the way to the centre of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 thanks to a chart-topping superstar. In the past few months, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The bedazzled bra and thong, plumed armbands and shimmering headpiece were ideal for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.

Swift is part of a trend. This year, showgirl references have been adopted by pop stars including Dua Lipa as they whizzed across concert platforms in glitter, strategic openings and plumes, illuminated against theatrical sets. Her fashion curator a fashion expert mentioned in an interview with a style publication he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the 50s, the backup dancers fluttered giant ostrich feather fans.

Drawing from History

Modern stars and other successful musicians also draw on 19th-century entertainment forms, including vaudeville and ensemble references. The final look are vastly different from the 1990s era Britney Spears era of crop tops and baggy pants, and urban dance moves that were popular earlier.

But certain observers are on board with this showgirl renaissance. An ex-showgirl, a ex- Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the 2000s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word term is being “used as an umbrella term including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently today's icons.”

A Coveted Vintage Style

For millennial and millennial stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a style icon gave a nod to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the actor wore a semi-sheer beaded dress created by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, Miley Cyrus paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn previously to perform at the Grammys. In September, Sabrina Carpenter wore a trio of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among vintage enthusiasts.

“The showgirl aesthetic inspire a sense of longing for a historical elegance,” says an archivist, an expert at the a Las Vegas university, who studies the history of showgirls. “Today it is seen as a sort of ‘safe’ sexy because it has been modified. It has got all the glamour, the sparkles and the shine but without the exposure.”

A Than Simply Style: An Icon of Las Vegas

She says the showgirl image are key to the identity of Las Vegas. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was accompanied by two showgirls. While Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-based productions, the historian says they are still used as an emblem of the city, appearing at conventions and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a lasting icon of Las Vegas glitz and glamour,” Chung says.

The Appeal of Transformation

The former showgirl says the transformative effect of a stage character is part of the attraction. This is a notion the singer hints at in a latest docuseries that documents the backstage action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting practice sessions, training and 149 concerts across multiple nations, each running for 3.5 hours.

Hardy recalls her own stage routines as “like running a marathon in heels every night”. Her feathered headdress tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the stairs to the platform from the green 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 went on stage. You’re sweating the whole time but crafting this fantasy that it’s simple and gorgeous and ethereal.”

Maybe this is where the fascination of the showgirl fantasy really resides. In the complexity of 2025 there is a longing for fantasy. What better figure to look to than such icons, who have always embodied fantasy, idealism and a realm where nobody misses a mark.