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After a three-decade stint on the iconic Vegas strip, the performers from the production Jubilee! took a final choreographed kick in 2016. The extravaganza, famous for its intricate costumes designed by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, ended its run due to dwindling audience numbers and unimpressed critics who described it as a spectacle “stuck in the past”.

Currently, roughly eight years later, the showgirl persona, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is making a comeback.

A Master of Sparkle

Dubbed the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made theatrical showgirl glamour his signature style, clothing everyone from Hollywood icons to pop royalty. In a recent auction, a “see-through” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, well over its projected value, while a shimmering fringed bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.

“I believe it looks more appealing for the new generation of stars who is seeking something other than what they grew up with”, he explained to a media outlet. “New stars are striving for a show-stopping, more dramatic, attention-grabbing, grand statement.”

A Musical Comeback

It’s a look that glided all the way to the centre of popular culture in 2025 largely due to Taylor Swift. Earlier this year, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The crystal-covered bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and glittering headpiece were tailor-made for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.

Swift is part of a trend. This year, glamorous nods have been adopted by pop stars including Dua Lipa as they whizzed across world tours in sparkles, strategic openings and feathers, spotlighted against theatrical sets. Her fashion curator Lorenzo Posocco explained to Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the 50s, Lipa’s dancers waved giant plumed accessories.

Pulling from the Past

These artists and other chart toppers also reference classic performances, including classic theater and chorus line references. The outcome are poles apart from the late-century pop style of short shirts and utilitarian trousers, and street-style dance moves that came before them.

But not everyone are convinced with this showgirl renaissance. A former performer, a former Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the 00s 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 seemingly modern pop stars.”

A Coveted Vintage Style

For gen Z and modern stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a famous actress paid tribute to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actress wore a semi-sheer sequined dress made by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, a singer 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 series of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among collectors.

“This style evoke nostalgia for a bygone era of glitz,” says a historian, a curator at the an academic institution, who studies the story of showgirls. “Now it is viewed as a sort of ‘toned-down’ appeal because it has been adapted. It has got all the elegance, the sparkles and the glitter but without the nudity.”

A Than Simply Style: An Symbol of the City

She says the showgirl image are integral to the identity of Vegas. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was flanked by two showgirls. While Las Vegas no longer has any traditional showgirl productions, Jung says they are still employed as an emblem of the city, being present at conventions and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a remaining symbol of Vegas spectacle,” Chung says.

An Appeal of Escape

The former showgirl says the magical transformation of a showgirl is part of the attraction. This is a notion the singer alludes to in a new docuseries that shows the behind-the-scenes action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included intense practice sessions, training and 149 concerts across multiple nations, each running for 3.5 hours.

Hardy explains her own nights in the spotlight as “comparable to extreme physical exertion in heels every night”. Her headpiece weighed 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the steps to the platform from the dressing rooms three floors below in the basement. I had to head up ahead of time for my moment so I could recover before I went on stage. You are perspiring the whole time but creating this fantasy that it’s effortless and stunning and dreamlike.”

It could be this is where the fascination of the showgirl fantasy really resides. In the chaos of 2025 there is a desire for fantasy. Who better to turn to than such icons, who have always represented fantasy, perfection and a world where nobody makes a mistake.