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Following a long-running run on the Las Vegas strip, the performers from the spectacle Jubilee! took a final choreographed kick in 2016. The production, famous for its elaborate costumes designed by style icon Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to falling audience numbers and unimpressed commentators who described it as a spectacle “a relic of another era”.

Now, roughly eight years later, showgirls, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is back.

A Sultan of Sparkle

Known as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made over-the-top showgirl glitz his defining aesthetic, dressing everyone from Marilyn Monroe to Madonna. In a recent auction, a “naked” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, well over its estimated price, while a shimmering beaded bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.

“I think it looks more attractive for the emerging artists who is desiring something other than what they grew up with”, he stated in an interview with a media outlet. “Contemporary performers are pushing toward a glamorous, more spectacular, show-stopping, memorable statement.”

The Mainstream Comeback

It’s a look that glided all the way to the centre of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 propelled by a global pop icon. Recently, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The bedazzled bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and shimmering headpiece were perfect for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.

She isn't alone. This year, showgirl references have been adopted by music artists including Dua Lipa as they whizzed across concert platforms in glitter, revealing designs and plumes, spotlighted against overstated sets. Lipa’s stylist a fashion expert told a style publication he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the 50s, Lipa’s dancers fluttered giant ostrich feather fans.

Pulling from Tradition

Lipa, Carpenter and other chart toppers also reference 19th-century entertainment forms, including vaudeville and dance line references. The outcome are poles apart from the late-century pop style of revealing tops and cargo pants, and street-style dance moves that came before them.

But not everyone are convinced with this showgirl renaissance. A former performer, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the early 2000s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “employed as an catch-all phrase encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even modern pop stars.”

The Coveted Retro Look

For younger and millennial stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a style icon paid tribute to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the star wore a semi-sheer embellished dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, another pop star 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 trio of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a favorite among collectors.

“The showgirl aesthetic bring about a sense of longing for a bygone era of glitz,” says Su Kim Chung, an expert at the University of Nevada, who researches the story of showgirls. “Today it is viewed as a sort of ‘toned-down’ appeal because it has been adapted. It has got all the sophistication, the sparkles and the sparkle but without the exposure.”

A Than Simply Style: An Symbol of Las Vegas

Chung says the showgirl image are key to the iconography of Vegas. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was surrounded by two showgirls. While Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-based productions, Chung says they are still employed as an logo of the city, showing up at conventions and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a remaining figure of Vegas glitz and glamour,” she says.

An Allure of Illusion

The former showgirl says the magical transformation of a showgirl persona is part of the attraction. It’s something Taylor Swift references in a recent documentary series that shows the backstage action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling practice sessions, gym sessions and countless performances across 21 countries, each going on for 3.5 hours.

She explains her own nights in the spotlight as “comparable to running a marathon in stilettos every night”. Her feathered headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the steps to the platform from the backstage area three floors below in the basement. I had to start early for my cue so I could catch my breath before I went on stage. You are sweating the whole time but crafting this image that it’s simple and beautiful and dreamlike.”

Maybe this is where the true allure of the showgirl really resides. In the chaos of 2025 there is a longing for a break from reality. What better figure to look to than showgirls, who have always embodied dreams, idealism and a world where no one makes a mistake.