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Following a three-decade tenure on the Las Vegas strip, the performers from the spectacle Jubilee! took a final choreographed kick in 2016. The show, famous for its ornate costumes crafted by style icon Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to falling audience numbers and critical critics who labeled it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.

Now, almost a decade later, the showgirl persona, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is back.

A King of Sparkle

Referred to as the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made dramatic stage sparkle his signature style, dressing everyone from Marilyn Monroe to pop royalty. Earlier this month, a “see-through” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, well over its initial estimate, while a metallic beaded bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.

“I think it looks more enticing for the younger performer who is looking for something other than what they were accustomed to”, he stated in an interview with a media outlet. “Contemporary performers are striving for a theatrical, more dramatic, breathtaking, entrance-making statement.”

A Mainstream Resurgence

It’s a look that glided all the way to the epicenter 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 latest record. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and glittering headpiece were ideal for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.

She has company. This year, showgirl inspirations have been adopted by singers including Miley Cyrus as they whizzed across world tours in glitter, strategic openings and ostrich feathers, highlighted against camp sets. Her fashion curator her creative director explained to a style publication he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the 50s, Lipa’s dancers waved giant plumed accessories.

Drawing from History

Modern stars and other hitmakers also reference 19th-century entertainment forms, including vaudeville and dance line references. The results are poles apart from the 1990s era teen pop of revealing tops and utilitarian trousers, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that were popular earlier.

But certain observers are enthusiastic with this glamour resurgence. Nancy Hardy, a ex- Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the early 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “employed as an umbrella term covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even today's icons.”

A Highly Sought-After Classic Look

For millennial and young adult stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a famous actress honored to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actress wore a semi-sheer beaded dress created by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, Miley Cyrus paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn previously to perform at the Grammys. In September, the singer wore a collection of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among vintage enthusiasts.

“Showgirls evoke nostalgia for a historical elegance,” says an archivist, an expert at the University of Nevada, who documents the story of showgirls. “Currently it is viewed as a sort of ‘acceptable’ sexy because it has been updated. It has got all the glamour, the rhinestones and the glitter but without the nudity.”

More Than Simply Fashion: An Icon of the City

The expert says the showgirl image are key to the iconography of Las Vegas. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was flanked by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas does not host any showgirl-centric productions, Jung says they are still used as an emblem of the city, showing up at gatherings and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a lasting symbol of Las Vegas spectacle,” Chung says.

The Allure of Escape

Hardy says the transformative effect of a showgirl persona is part of the attraction. This is a notion the singer references in a recent documentary series that documents the backstage action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included intense practice sessions, workouts and 149 shows across 21 countries, each going on for 3.5 hours.

She describes her own nights in the spotlight as “similar to completing an endurance race in high heels every night”. Her headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the stairs to the stage from the green rooms three floors below in the lower level. I had to start early for my cue so I could rest before I went on stage. One is working hard the whole time but crafting this illusion that it’s simple and beautiful and magical.”

It could be this is where the appeal of the showgirl fantasy really is found. In the chaos of 2025 there is a craving for a break from reality. Who better to turn to than showgirls, who have always embodied dreams, perfection and a realm where nobody misses a mark.