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Following a long-running tenure on the iconic Vegas strip, the performers from the spectacle Jubilee! executed their last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The extravaganza, famous for its intricate costumes designed by style icon Bob Mackie, ended its run due to dwindling audience numbers and unimpressed critics who called it a spectacle “a relic of another era”.

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

The Master of Sparkle

Known as the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glamour his defining aesthetic, dressing everyone from Marilyn Monroe to pop royalty. In a recent auction, a “naked” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, well over its estimated price, while a shimmering tasseled bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.

“I think it looks more appealing for the emerging artists who is looking for something other than what they grew up with”, he told a newspaper. “Contemporary performers are striving for a show-stopping, more spectacular, attention-grabbing, entrance-making statement.”

The Mainstream Comeback

It’s a look that glided all the way to the centre of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 largely due to Taylor Swift. Earlier this year, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and shimmering headpiece were ideal for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.

She isn't alone. This year, showgirl inspirations have been adopted by singers including Dua Lipa as they danced across world tours in glitter, revealing designs and ostrich feathers, illuminated against theatrical sets. A top stylist a fashion expert explained to a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the mid-century, Lipa’s dancers waved giant ostrich feather fans.

Drawing from Tradition

Lipa, Carpenter and other hitmakers also reference classic performances, including burlesque and chorus line references. The results are poles apart from the 90s pop style of crop tops and baggy pants, and street-style dance moves that came before them.

But certain observers are convinced with this showgirl renaissance. Nancy Hardy, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the early 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. 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 seemingly Taylor Swift.”

The Coveted Retro Style

For gen Z and modern stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a style icon gave a nod to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the star wore a translucent beaded dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he designed 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, the singer wore a series of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among fashion collectors.

“Showgirls evoke a sense of longing for a historical elegance,” says an archivist, head of special collections at the an academic institution, who researches the story of showgirls. “Today it is viewed as a sort of ‘safe’ appeal because it has been modified. It has got all the glamour, the crystals and the sparkle but without the exposure.”

A Than Just Style: An Symbol of Vegas

The expert says the showgirl image are key to the identity of Sin City. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was surrounded by two showgirls. While Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-based productions, Jung 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 figure of Las Vegas glamour,” she says.

An Appeal of Illusion

The former showgirl says the complete change of a showgirl persona is part of the allure. This idea the singer hints at in a recent documentary series that documents the behind-the-scenes action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting rehearsals, workouts and countless performances across 21 countries, each lasting 3.5 hours.

Hardy explains her own showgirl performances as “comparable to extreme physical exertion in high heels every night”. Her headpiece tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the staircase to the performance area from the green rooms three floors below in the lower level. I had to leave early for my cue so I could catch my breath before I went on stage. One is working hard the whole time but maintaining this image that it’s easy and gorgeous and dreamlike.”

Perhaps this is where the true allure of the showgirl fantasy really is found. In the chaos of 2025 there is a desire for a break from reality. Is there anyone better to look to than these performers, who have always personified make-believe, flawlessness and a universe where nobody falters.