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Following a 31-year tenure on the Las Vegas strip, the showgirls from the revue Jubilee! executed their last choreographed kick in 2016. The production, famous for its intricate costumes crafted by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to declining audience numbers and unimpressed commentators who described it as a spectacle “stuck in the past”.

Currently, nearly ten years later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is making a comeback.

The Sultan of Glitz

Dubbed the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made dramatic stage sparkle his defining aesthetic, clothing everyone from screen legends to Madonna. Earlier this month, a “see-through” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, far exceeding its estimated price, while a shimmering fringed bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert 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 knew from childhood”, he stated in an interview with a publication. “New stars are embracing a glamorous, more dramatic, breathtaking, entrance-making statement.”

The Mainstream Revival

It’s a look that made its way all the way to the centre of mainstream fashion in 2025 thanks to a global pop icon. In the past few months, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The bedazzled bra and thong, feathered armbands and sparkly headpiece were perfect for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.

Swift is part of a trend. This year, glamorous nods have been incorporated by music artists including Dua Lipa as they zoomed across world tours in sparkles, strategic openings and feathers, spotlighted against camp sets. A top stylist her creative director told a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the mid-century, the backup dancers wafted giant ostrich feather fans.

Drawing from the Past

These artists and other successful musicians also take inspiration from 19th-century entertainment forms, including classic theater and dance line references. The outcome are poles apart from the 1990s era teen pop of short shirts and baggy pants, and street-style dance moves that preceded this trend.

But not everyone are enthusiastic with this showgirl revival. Nancy Hardy, a former Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the early 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word term is being “treated as an umbrella term including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently modern pop stars.”

The Coveted Vintage Look

For younger and modern stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a style icon honored to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actress wore a see-through embellished dress created by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, a singer paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn at an awards show 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 hit among collectors.

“The showgirl aesthetic evoke a sense of longing for a bygone era of glitz,” says a historian, head of special collections at the a Las Vegas university, who documents the story of showgirls. “Currently it is viewed as a sort of ‘acceptable’ allure because it has been adapted. It has got all the elegance, the sparkles and the shine but without the exposure.”

A Than Just Fashion: An Symbol of the City

The expert says this figure are central to the imagery of Vegas. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was accompanied by two showgirls. While Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-centric productions, the historian says they are still used as an logo of the city, showing up at gatherings and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a lasting symbol of Las Vegas spectacle,” the expert says.

An Appeal of Escape

Nancy Hardy says the complete change of a stage character is part of the attraction. This idea Taylor Swift references in a recent behind-the-scenes film that documents the behind-the-scenes action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included intense preparations, workouts and numerous shows across 21 countries, each lasting 3.5 hours.

Hardy describes her own nights in the spotlight as “similar to running a marathon in high heels every night”. Her headpiece tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the steps to the platform from the backstage area three floors below in the lower level. I had to leave early for my moment so I could recover before I went on stage. You are perspiring the whole time but maintaining this fantasy that it’s effortless and stunning and magical.”

Maybe this is where the fascination of the showgirl really resides. In the busyness of 2025 there is a longing for fantasy. What better figure to turn to than such icons, who have always represented make-believe, flawlessness and a world where nobody falters.