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Following a long-running run on the Las Vegas strip, the performers from the spectacle Jubilee! executed their last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The production, famous for its elaborate costumes crafted by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to falling audience numbers and disappointed reviewers who described it as a spectacle “stuck in the past”.

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

The Master of Sequins

Known as the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made over-the-top showgirl glamour his trademark look, clothing everyone from Hollywood icons to pop royalty. In a recent auction, a “naked” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, seven times its estimated price, while a silver and gold fringed bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.

“I think it looks more enticing for the emerging artists who is looking for something other than what they knew from childhood”, he stated in an interview with a media outlet. “Contemporary performers are striving for a glamorous, more dramatic, show-stopping, entrance-making statement.”

The Mainstream Revival

It’s a look that glided all the way to the centre of popular culture in 2025 propelled by a global pop icon. In the past few months, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The crystal-covered bra and thong, feathered armbands and glittering headpiece were tailor-made for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.

The singer has company. This year, showgirl references have been adopted by singers including Sabrina Carpenter as they zoomed across concert platforms in sparkles, strategic openings and plumes, illuminated against theatrical sets. Lipa’s stylist Lorenzo Posocco told a style publication he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the mid-century, her performers wafted giant ostrich feather fans.

Pulling from Tradition

These artists and other successful musicians also take inspiration from historical performances, including vaudeville and dance line references. The outcome are vastly different from the late-century pop style of short shirts and utilitarian trousers, and urban dance moves that came before them.

But some critics are convinced with this showgirl renaissance. Nancy Hardy, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the 00s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “treated as an umbrella term including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently today's icons.”

A Coveted Vintage Look

For gen Z and young adult stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become incredibly sought-after. In 2024, a style icon paid tribute to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the star wore a translucent embellished dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, another pop star paid an significant price to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn earlier in the year to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a series of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among collectors.

“This style inspire a sense of longing for a bygone era of glitz,” says an archivist, an expert at the an academic institution, who studies the story of showgirls. “Now it is seen as a sort of ‘toned-down’ allure because it has been adapted. It has got all the glamour, the crystals and the shine but without the nudity.”

A Than Simply Fashion: An Symbol of Vegas

Chung says showgirls are integral to the identity of Sin City. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was accompanied by two showgirls. While Las Vegas does not host any showgirl-centric productions, Chung says they are still used as an symbol of the city, showing up at corporate events and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a lasting icon of Las Vegas glamour,” she says.

The Appeal of Transformation

Hardy says the complete change of a stage character is part of the allure. This is a notion Taylor Swift hints at in a latest behind-the-scenes film that captures the behind-the-scenes action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting practice sessions, gym sessions and 149 concerts across multiple nations, each lasting 3.5 hours.

Hardy describes her own nights in the spotlight as “comparable to running a marathon in heels every night”. Her feathered headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the stairs to the stage from the backstage area three floors below in the underground. I had to head up ahead of time for my cue so I could recover before I performed. You’re perspiring the whole time but crafting this image that it’s effortless and gorgeous and magical.”

It could be this is where the appeal of the showgirl fantasy really is found. In the complexity of 2025 there is a craving for a break from reality. What better figure to turn to than showgirls, who have always personified dreams, idealism and a realm where no one makes a mistake.