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Following a long-running run on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the showgirls from the revue Jubilee! took a final perfectly timed kick in 2016. The show, known for its ornate costumes designed by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, ended its run due to declining audience numbers and disappointed critics who labeled it a spectacle “a relic of another era”.

Now, nearly ten years later, the showgirl, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is making a comeback.

A Sultan of Sequins

Known as the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glamour his signature style, outfitting everyone from Marilyn Monroe to Madonna. In a recent auction, a “see-through” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, seven times its estimated price, while a silver and gold 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 looking for something other than what they knew from childhood”, he explained to a media outlet. “New stars are embracing a glamorous, more dramatic, breathtaking, memorable statement.”

A Musical Resurgence

It’s a look that glided all the way to the epicenter of popular culture in 2025 thanks to Taylor Swift. Earlier this year, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The bedazzled bra and thong, feathered armbands and glittering headpiece were tailor-made for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.

She has company. This year, showgirl references have been incorporated by singers including Dua Lipa as they danced across concert platforms in glitter, strategic openings and plumes, highlighted against theatrical sets. A top stylist a fashion expert told a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the 50s, the backup dancers waved giant ostrich feather fans.

Pulling from History

Modern stars and other hitmakers also draw on 19th-century entertainment forms, including classic theater and chorus line references. The outcome are poles apart from the late-century teen pop of short shirts and utilitarian trousers, and urban dance moves that were popular earlier.

But not everyone are on board with this showgirl revival. Nancy Hardy, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the 00s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “used as an broad label covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even modern pop stars.”

A Coveted Vintage Style

For millennial and millennial stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, Zendaya gave a nod to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the actress wore a semi-sheer beaded dress created by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, a singer paid an private amount to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn earlier in the year to perform at the Grammys. In September, Sabrina Carpenter wore a trio of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among fashion collectors.

“Showgirls evoke a sense of longing for a past glamour,” says Su Kim Chung, an expert at the an academic institution, who documents the history of showgirls. “Today it is viewed as a sort of ‘safe’ allure because it has been modified. It has got all the glamour, the crystals and the sparkle but without the exposure.”

More Than Simply Style: An Icon of Vegas

Chung says the showgirl image are key to the iconography of Sin City. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was flanked by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-centric productions, Jung says they are still employed as an symbol of the city, being present at gatherings and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a remaining symbol of Vegas glamour,” the expert says.

The Appeal of Transformation

Hardy says the transformative effect of a showgirl is part of the allure. It’s something Taylor Swift references in a recent docuseries that shows the off-camera action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting practice sessions, gym sessions and countless shows across dozens of cities, each lasting 3.5 hours.

The performer recalls her own stage routines as “like extreme physical exertion in heels every night”. Her feathered headdress tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the staircase to the stage from the green rooms three floors below in the basement. I had to head up ahead of time for my moment so I could rest before I went on stage. You are working hard the whole time but crafting this fantasy that it’s easy and beautiful and dreamlike.”

It could be this is where the appeal of the showgirl really is found. In the complexity of 2025 there is a craving for escapism. What better figure to emulate than showgirls, who have always represented make-believe, flawlessness and a realm where no one makes a mistake.