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After a long-running run on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the dancers from the spectacle Jubilee! took a final choreographed kick in 2016. The show, famous for its intricate costumes created by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, ended its run due to falling audience numbers and unimpressed reviewers who labeled it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.

Currently, roughly eight years later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl style, is back.

A Master of Sequins

Referred to as the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glamour his defining aesthetic, clothing everyone from Hollywood icons to music superstars. Recently, a “naked” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, seven times its projected value, while a metallic fringed bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.

“I believe it looks more appealing for the younger performer who is seeking something other than what they were accustomed to”, he explained to a media outlet. “Today's artists are striving for a theatrical, more dramatic, breathtaking, memorable statement.”

A Pop Culture Resurgence

It’s a look that made its way all the way to the centre of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 thanks to a chart-topping superstar. In the past few months, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, plumed armbands and shimmering headpiece were ideal for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.

Swift is part of a trend. This year, showgirl inspirations have been adopted by pop stars including Dua Lipa as they zoomed across world tours in glitter, strategic openings and plumes, spotlighted against theatrical sets. A top stylist her creative director explained to a style publication he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the mid-century, the backup dancers waved giant plumed accessories.

Drawing from the Past

These artists and other chart toppers also reference 19th-century entertainment forms, including classic theater and ensemble references. The outcome are vastly different from the 90s teen pop of crop tops and utilitarian trousers, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that came before them.

But not everyone are on board with this showgirl revival. A former performer, a ex- Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the early 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “used as an catch-all phrase including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently Taylor Swift.”

The Coveted Vintage Style

For gen Z and modern stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a famous actress gave a nod to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the actress wore a semi-sheer beaded dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, Miley Cyrus paid an private amount to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn previously to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a series of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among collectors.

“Showgirls inspire nostalgia for a past glamour,” says Su Kim Chung, a curator at the a Las Vegas university, who studies the history of showgirls. “Currently it is considered a sort of ‘acceptable’ allure because it has been adapted. It has got all the glamour, the rhinestones and the glitter but without the bare skin.”

More Than Simply Style: An Icon of the City

Chung says the showgirl image are key to the iconography of Las Vegas. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was accompanied by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas currently lacks any traditional showgirl productions, the historian says they are still used as an logo of the city, showing up at conventions and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a lasting icon of Las Vegas glitz and glamour,” she says.

The Allure of Escape

The former showgirl says the complete change of a showgirl persona is part of the appeal. It’s something Taylor Swift references in a recent documentary series that documents the off-camera action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included intense practice sessions, training and 149 shows across multiple nations, each lasting 3.5 hours.

The performer recalls her own showgirl performances as “comparable to running a marathon in heels every night”. Her headpiece was 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the staircase to the platform from the dressing rooms three floors below in the underground. I had to head up ahead of time for my moment so I could recover before I went on stage. One is working hard the whole time but creating this illusion that it’s simple and gorgeous and dreamlike.”

Maybe this is where the appeal of the showgirl really lies. In the busyness of 2025 there is a craving for escapism. Is there anyone better to emulate than these performers, who have always represented fantasy, perfection and a realm where nobody makes a mistake.