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Following a 31-year stint on the Las Vegas strip, the performers from the production Jubilee! took a final synchronised kick in 2016. The production, renowned for its intricate costumes crafted by style icon Bob Mackie, came to an end due to falling audience numbers and disappointed reviewers who described it as a spectacle “stuck in the past”.

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

The Master of Sparkle

Known as the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made theatrical stage sparkle 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, far exceeding its projected value, while a silver and gold fringed bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.

“I think it looks more appealing for the new generation of stars who is looking for something other than what they grew up with”, he explained to a media outlet. “Contemporary performers are pushing toward a glamorous, more theatrical, show-stopping, entrance-making statement.”

The Pop Culture Resurgence

It’s a look that glided all the way to the epicenter of popular culture in 2025 thanks to a global pop icon. Earlier this year, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, plumed armbands and sparkly headpiece were ideal for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.

Swift is part of a trend. This year, glamorous nods have been incorporated by music artists including Sabrina Carpenter as they whizzed across concert platforms in sparkles, strategic openings and feathers, spotlighted against theatrical sets. A top stylist Lorenzo Posocco told Vogue he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the 1950s, her performers waved giant plumed accessories.

Drawing from Tradition

Modern stars and other hitmakers also take inspiration from 19th-century entertainment forms, including classic theater and chorus line references. The outcome are poles apart from the 1990s era pop style of short shirts and utilitarian trousers, and urban dance moves that came before them.

But not everyone are enthusiastic with this showgirl revival. An ex-showgirl, a former Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word term is being “employed as an broad label encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even today's icons.”

The Highly Sought-After Classic Look

For younger and young adult stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a style icon gave a nod to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the star wore a see-through sequined dress made by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he created 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 earlier in the year to perform at the Grammys. In September, Sabrina Carpenter wore a series of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a favorite among fashion collectors.

“This style evoke a sense of longing for a bygone era of glitz,” says a historian, an expert at the University of Nevada, who documents the story of showgirls. “Currently it is considered a sort of ‘acceptable’ sexy because it has been modified. It has got all the sophistication, the rhinestones and the shine but without the exposure.”

More Than Simply Style: An Icon of Vegas

The expert says this figure are key to the imagery of Las Vegas. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was flanked by two showgirls. While Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-centric productions, Jung says they are still employed as an symbol of the city, showing up at corporate events and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a lasting symbol of Las Vegas glamour,” she says.

An Allure of Transformation

Nancy Hardy says the transformative effect of a showgirl persona is part of the allure. It’s something Taylor Swift references in a latest behind-the-scenes film that captures the behind-the-scenes action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included intense preparations, training and 149 performances across multiple nations, each lasting 3.5 hours.

The performer explains her own showgirl performances as “like running a marathon in heels every night”. Her headdress was 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the staircase to the performance area from the backstage area three floors below in the lower level. I had to leave early for my entrance so I could rest before I performed. You’re perspiring the whole time but creating this illusion that it’s effortless and stunning and magical.”

Maybe this is where the appeal of the showgirl fantasy really is found. In the chaos of 2025 there is a longing for fantasy. Is there anyone better to emulate than these performers, who have always represented make-believe, perfection and a universe where no one makes a mistake.