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After a 31-year stint on the Las Vegas strip, the showgirls from the revue Jubilee! executed their last choreographed kick in 2016. The show, famous for its elaborate costumes created by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, ended its run due to falling audience numbers and disappointed commentators who labeled it a spectacle “a relic of another era”.

Today, nearly ten years later, the showgirl, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is making a comeback.

A King of Sequins

Referred to as the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made over-the-top showgirl glitz his trademark look, outfitting everyone from Marilyn Monroe to pop royalty. Earlier this month, a “see-through” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, far exceeding its projected value, while a silver and gold beaded bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie created 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 knew from childhood”, he explained to a newspaper. “Contemporary performers are striving for a show-stopping, more dramatic, show-stopping, entrance-making statement.”

The Musical Resurgence

It’s a look that glided all the way to the heart of mainstream fashion in 2025 largely due to a chart-topping superstar. In the past few months, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The bedazzled bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and sparkly headpiece were perfect for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.

The singer has company. This year, showgirl inspirations have been adopted by pop stars including Dua Lipa as they zoomed across concert platforms in sequins, strategic openings and feathers, spotlighted against overstated sets. A top stylist her creative director told a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the 50s, Lipa’s dancers wafted giant ostrich feather fans.

Drawing from Tradition

Lipa, Carpenter and other chart toppers also draw on classic performances, including burlesque and dance line references. The outcome are vastly different from the 90s Britney Spears era of short shirts and utilitarian trousers, and street-style dance moves that were popular earlier.

But certain observers are on board with this glamour resurgence. An ex-showgirl, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the early 2000s says the trend is “puzzling”. 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 modern pop stars.”

A Coveted Classic Style

For millennial and young adult stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become incredibly sought-after. In 2024, a style icon honored to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actress wore a see-through embellished dress made by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, another pop star paid an private amount to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn earlier in the year to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a collection of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among vintage enthusiasts.

“Showgirls bring about a sense of longing for a past glamour,” says Su Kim Chung, a curator at the a Las Vegas university, who studies the history of showgirls. “Now it is seen as a sort of ‘acceptable’ appeal because it has been modified. It has got all the glamour, the sparkles and the sparkle but without the bare skin.”

More Than Just Fashion: An Icon of the City

She says this figure are key to the iconography of Sin City. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was accompanied by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-based productions, Jung says they are still featured as an logo of the city, appearing at gatherings and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a remaining figure of Las Vegas glamour,” Chung says.

The Allure of Transformation

Nancy Hardy says the complete change of a showgirl is part of the appeal. It’s something Swift references in a new docuseries that captures the off-camera action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included intense preparations, training and numerous performances across multiple nations, each running for 3.5 hours.

Hardy explains her own stage routines as “comparable to completing an endurance race in stilettos every night”. Her feathered headdress tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the stairs to the stage from the green rooms three floors below in the underground. I had to start early for my entrance so I could catch my breath before I performed. One is perspiring the whole time but creating this fantasy that it’s effortless and stunning and ethereal.”

Maybe this is where the true allure of the showgirl fantasy really lies. In the busyness of 2025 there is a desire for a break from reality. Who better to emulate than showgirls, who have always personified dreams, flawlessness and a world where nobody misses a mark.