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After a three-decade tenure on the Las Vegas strip, the showgirls from the production Jubilee! took a final perfectly timed kick in 2016. The production, famous for its ornate costumes created by style icon Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to dwindling audience numbers and disappointed reviewers who called it a spectacle “trapped in time”.

Today, nearly ten years later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is back.

A Master of Glitz

Known as the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made theatrical stage sparkle his signature style, dressing everyone from Marilyn Monroe to Madonna. In a recent auction, a “see-through” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, well over its projected value, while a silver and gold fringed bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.

“In my view it looks more appealing for the younger performer who is desiring something other than what they were accustomed to”, he told a newspaper. “Contemporary performers are striving for a theatrical, more theatrical, attention-grabbing, entrance-making statement.”

A Mainstream Revival

It’s a look that made its way all the way to the heart of popular culture in 2025 propelled by Taylor Swift. In the past few months, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The crystal-covered bra and thong, feathered armbands and glittering headpiece were perfect for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.

The singer has company. This year, showgirl references have been embraced by pop stars including Dua Lipa as they zoomed across concert platforms in sequins, strategic openings and feathers, highlighted against theatrical sets. Her fashion curator a fashion expert explained to a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the 1950s, the backup dancers wafted giant plumed accessories.

Pulling from History

These artists and other successful musicians also draw on classic entertainment forms, including vaudeville and dance line references. The results are vastly different from the 90s Britney Spears era of crop tops and utilitarian trousers, and urban dance moves that preceded this trend.

But certain observers are enthusiastic with this showgirl revival. A former performer, a former Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word term is being “used as an umbrella term including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even Taylor Swift.”

A Coveted Vintage Look

For younger and young adult stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a style icon gave a nod to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the star wore a translucent sequined dress created by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, another pop star paid an private amount to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn at an awards show to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a collection of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among collectors.

“This style evoke fond memories for a bygone era of glitz,” says a historian, an expert at the a Las Vegas university, who researches the legacy of showgirls. “Currently it is viewed as a sort of ‘safe’ appeal because it has been adapted. It has got all the elegance, the sparkles and the glitter but without the bare skin.”

More Than Just Style: An Icon of the City

Chung says this figure are central to the imagery of Vegas. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was surrounded by two showgirls. While Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-centric productions, Chung says they are still featured as an logo of the city, being present at corporate events and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a remaining icon of Las Vegas spectacle,” she says.

The Appeal of Illusion

Nancy Hardy says the transformative effect of a stage character is part of the appeal. This idea Swift hints at in a latest documentary series that documents the backstage action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling practice sessions, training and countless concerts across 21 countries, each lasting 3.5 hours.

She explains her own nights in the spotlight as “like running a marathon in high heels every night”. Her feathered headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the stairs to the platform from the dressing 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. One is perspiring the whole time but maintaining this fantasy that it’s effortless and beautiful and dreamlike.”

Perhaps this is where the appeal of the showgirl fantasy really resides. In the complexity of 2025 there is a desire for escapism. What better figure to emulate than showgirls, who have always personified fantasy, idealism and a world where nobody makes a mistake.