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After a long-running stint on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the dancers from the spectacle Jubilee! executed their last choreographed kick in 2016. The extravaganza, renowned for its ornate costumes created by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, came to an end due to declining audience numbers and critical critics who called it a spectacle “a relic of another era”.

Currently, roughly eight years later, the showgirl persona, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is back.

The Master of Glitz

Known as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glitz his defining aesthetic, clothing everyone from Hollywood icons to music superstars. Earlier this month, a “barely-there” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, seven times its estimated price, while a metallic beaded bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.

“I believe it looks more attractive for the new generation of stars who is desiring something other than what they knew from childhood”, he explained to a media outlet. “Today's artists are striving for a theatrical, more spectacular, show-stopping, entrance-making statement.”

A Pop Culture Comeback

It’s a look that made its way all the way to the heart of popular culture in 2025 thanks to a chart-topping superstar. Recently, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The bedazzled bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and sparkly headpiece were tailor-made for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.

Swift isn't alone. This year, showgirl references have been adopted by pop stars including Dua Lipa as they danced across arena stages in sequins, strategic openings and ostrich feathers, spotlighted against camp sets. A top stylist her creative director mentioned in an interview with a style publication he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the 1950s, the backup dancers fluttered giant plumed accessories.

Drawing from the Past

Modern stars and other successful musicians also draw on historical entertainment forms, including classic theater and dance line references. The outcome are worlds away from the 90s Britney Spears era of revealing tops and baggy pants, and urban dance moves that were popular earlier.

But not everyone are convinced with this glamour resurgence. A former performer, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the early 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “employed as an umbrella term including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently Taylor Swift.”

The Highly Sought-After Vintage Style

For younger and millennial stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become incredibly sought-after. In 2024, a style icon honored to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the actor wore a see-through embellished dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, another pop star paid an private amount to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn at an awards show to perform at the Grammys. In September, Sabrina Carpenter wore a series of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among vintage enthusiasts.

“The showgirl aesthetic evoke nostalgia for a historical elegance,” says an archivist, an expert at the an academic institution, who researches the story of showgirls. “Today it is viewed as a sort of ‘acceptable’ sexy because it has been modified. It has got all the glamour, the crystals and the glitter but without the bare skin.”

More Than Simply Fashion: An Icon of the City

Chung says this figure are central to the iconography of Vegas. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was surrounded by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-based productions, the historian says they are still featured as an symbol of the city, appearing at gatherings and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a lasting icon of Las Vegas spectacle,” the expert says.

The Appeal of Escape

Nancy Hardy says the magical transformation of a showgirl persona is part of the attraction. It’s something Taylor Swift references in a new documentary series that documents the backstage action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting rehearsals, workouts and numerous concerts across multiple nations, each going on for 3.5 hours.

She describes her own stage routines as “comparable to running a marathon in heels every night”. Her headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the steps to the performance area from the backstage area three floors below in the underground. I had to leave early for my cue so I could recover before I made my entrance. You’re working hard the whole time but crafting this image that it’s simple and stunning and dreamlike.”

Maybe this is where the true allure of the showgirl really resides. In the busyness of 2025 there is a craving for fantasy. Is there anyone better to emulate than such icons, who have always personified make-believe, flawlessness and a world where nobody falters.