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After a 31-year run on the Las Vegas strip, the dancers from the revue Jubilee! gave one last choreographed kick in 2016. The production, renowned for its intricate costumes designed by style icon Bob Mackie, came to an end due to declining audience numbers and critical commentators who labeled it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.

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

A King of Glitz

Referred to as the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made dramatic stage sparkle his defining aesthetic, outfitting everyone from Hollywood icons to music superstars. Recently, a “barely-there” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, far exceeding its projected value, while a metallic fringed bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.

“In my view it looks more appealing for the emerging artists who is seeking something other than what they were accustomed to”, he told a publication. “Contemporary performers are embracing a show-stopping, more theatrical, attention-grabbing, entrance-making statement.”

The Mainstream Revival

It’s a look that made its way all the way to the epicenter of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 largely due to Taylor Swift. In the past few months, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The bedazzled bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and sparkly headpiece were tailor-made for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.

She has company. This year, showgirl references have been incorporated by pop stars including Dua Lipa as they zoomed across concert platforms in sequins, strategic openings and feathers, illuminated against theatrical sets. A top stylist her creative director explained to a style publication he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the 50s, Lipa’s dancers fluttered giant feathered fans.

Pulling from Tradition

These artists and other chart toppers also draw on 19th-century entertainment forms, including classic theater and chorus line references. The results are worlds away from the 1990s era teen pop of short shirts and utilitarian trousers, and urban dance moves that came before them.

But not everyone are enthusiastic with this showgirl revival. A former performer, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the early 2000s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word term is being “used as an umbrella term encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even modern pop stars.”

The Highly Sought-After Classic Style

For younger and modern stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, Zendaya gave a nod to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actor wore a see-through sequined dress created by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, another pop star paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn earlier in the year to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a trio of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among collectors.

“Showgirls inspire a sense of longing for a past glamour,” says an archivist, a curator at the an academic institution, who studies the history of showgirls. “Today it is considered a sort of ‘toned-down’ appeal because it has been updated. It has got all the elegance, the rhinestones and the glitter but without the exposure.”

More Than Simply Style: An Symbol of the City

She says showgirls are integral to the iconography of Sin City. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was flanked by two showgirls. While Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-based productions, Chung says they are still employed as an logo of the city, appearing at corporate events and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a lasting icon of Vegas glitz and glamour,” Chung says.

An Allure of Illusion

Hardy says the magical transformation of a stage character is part of the attraction. It’s something Swift references in a latest documentary series that documents the backstage action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling rehearsals, workouts and 149 performances across 21 countries, each going on for 3.5 hours.

The performer recalls her own stage routines as “like completing an endurance race in heels every night”. Her headpiece weighed 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the staircase 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 perspiring the whole time but maintaining this illusion that it’s simple and stunning and ethereal.”

Perhaps this is where the fascination of the showgirl fantasy really is found. In the chaos of 2025 there is a craving for fantasy. Who better to turn to than these performers, who have always embodied make-believe, perfection and a universe where nobody falters.