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After a three-decade tenure on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the showgirls from the spectacle Jubilee! took a final perfectly timed kick in 2016. The production, known for its ornate costumes designed by style icon Bob Mackie, ended its run due to falling audience numbers and critical critics who described it as a spectacle “stuck in the past”.

Today, roughly eight years later, showgirls, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is experiencing a revival.

A Sultan of Sparkle

Referred to as the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made over-the-top showgirl glamour his defining aesthetic, clothing everyone from Marilyn Monroe to music superstars. Recently, a “see-through” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, well over its initial estimate, while a metallic tasseled bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.

“In my view it looks more appealing for the emerging artists who is looking for something other than what they knew from childhood”, he explained to a publication. “New stars are striving for a glamorous, more theatrical, show-stopping, grand statement.”

The Musical Resurgence

It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the heart of popular culture in 2025 largely due to Taylor Swift. Recently, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s original 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 isn't alone. This year, showgirl references have been adopted by pop stars including Dua Lipa as they danced across arena stages in glitter, revealing designs and feathers, highlighted against theatrical sets. A top stylist Lorenzo Posocco told Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the mid-century, Lipa’s dancers waved giant feathered fans.

Pulling from Tradition

These artists and other hitmakers also reference historical entertainment forms, including vaudeville and dance line references. The results are vastly different from the 90s pop style of crop tops and cargo pants, and street-style dance moves that were popular earlier.

But some critics are convinced with this glamour resurgence. An ex-showgirl, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the early 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “treated as an umbrella term encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even Taylor Swift.”

A Coveted Classic Style

For gen Z and millennial stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, Zendaya honored to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the star wore a semi-sheer sequined dress made by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, a singer paid an private amount to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn earlier in the year to perform at the Grammys. In September, Sabrina Carpenter wore a collection of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among fashion collectors.

“The showgirl aesthetic evoke a sense of longing for a historical elegance,” says a historian, head of special collections at the a Las Vegas university, who researches the history of showgirls. “Currently it is considered a sort of ‘acceptable’ appeal because it has been adapted. It has got all the glamour, the crystals and the shine but without the bare skin.”

A Than Simply Fashion: An Icon of Las Vegas

She says the showgirl image are key to the imagery of Sin City. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was accompanied by two showgirls. While Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-centric productions, Chung says they are still featured as an logo of the city, showing up at corporate events and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a enduring symbol of Las Vegas glamour,” Chung says.

An Appeal of Illusion

Nancy Hardy says the transformative effect of a showgirl is part of the allure. This is a notion Swift alludes to in a latest docuseries that shows the backstage action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling practice sessions, training and 149 shows across 21 countries, each lasting 3.5 hours.

She explains her own nights in the spotlight as “like extreme physical exertion in heels every night”. Her feathered headdress was 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the stairs to the performance area from the green rooms three floors below in the underground. I had to start early for my cue so I could recover before I went on stage. One is working hard the whole time but creating this fantasy that it’s effortless and beautiful and ethereal.”

Perhaps this is where the appeal of the showgirl really is found. In the busyness of 2025 there is a longing for a break from reality. What better figure to emulate than these performers, who have always personified dreams, perfection and a universe where nobody makes a mistake.