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After a three-decade run on the iconic Vegas strip, the showgirls from the spectacle Jubilee! executed their last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The extravaganza, renowned for its elaborate costumes created by style icon Bob Mackie, came to an end due to falling audience numbers and critical critics who labeled it a spectacle “trapped in time”.

Currently, almost a decade later, the showgirl, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is back.

A King of Sparkle

Known as the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made theatrical showgirl glitz his signature style, dressing everyone from Hollywood icons to pop royalty. In a recent auction, a “barely-there” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, well over its projected value, while a metallic tasseled bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.

“I think it looks more attractive for the new generation of stars who is desiring something other than what they were accustomed to”, he stated in an interview with a media outlet. “Today's artists are pushing toward a show-stopping, more theatrical, show-stopping, memorable statement.”

A Pop Culture Resurgence

It’s a look that made its way all the way to the centre of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 largely due to Taylor Swift. In the past few months, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The bedazzled bra and thong, plumed armbands and sparkly headpiece were tailor-made for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.

The singer is part of a trend. This year, glamorous nods have been embraced by singers including Dua Lipa as they zoomed across arena stages in sparkles, cut-outs and plumes, illuminated against overstated sets. Lipa’s stylist a fashion expert told Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the mid-century, the backup dancers fluttered giant plumed accessories.

Drawing from Tradition

Lipa, Carpenter and other hitmakers also draw on historical entertainment forms, including burlesque and dance line references. The final look are poles apart from the 90s teen pop of short shirts and utilitarian trousers, and urban dance moves that were popular earlier.

But not everyone are on board with this showgirl renaissance. A former performer, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the 00s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “treated as an broad label encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even today's icons.”

A Coveted Classic Look

For younger and young adult stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a style icon paid tribute to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the star wore a semi-sheer beaded dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, another pop star paid an private amount to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn previously to perform at the Grammys. In September, Sabrina Carpenter wore a trio of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a favorite among vintage enthusiasts.

“This style bring about fond memories for a bygone era of glitz,” says Su Kim Chung, an expert at the University of Nevada, who studies the legacy of showgirls. “Now it is viewed as a sort of ‘toned-down’ allure because it has been adapted. It has got all the elegance, the rhinestones and the sparkle but without the exposure.”

More Than Just Style: An Symbol of Las Vegas

Chung says showgirls are key to the iconography of Las Vegas. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was flanked by two showgirls. While Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-centric productions, Chung says they are still employed as an emblem of the city, appearing at gatherings and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a lasting icon of Las Vegas spectacle,” Chung says.

An Allure of Illusion

Nancy Hardy says the transformative effect of a showgirl persona is part of the attraction. This is a notion Swift references in a recent behind-the-scenes film that shows the behind-the-scenes action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling rehearsals, training and 149 concerts across multiple nations, each going on for 3.5 hours.

She describes her own showgirl performances as “comparable to extreme physical exertion in heels every night”. Her feathered headdress was 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the steps to the stage from the green rooms three floors below in the lower level. I had to start early for my moment so I could catch my breath before I performed. You are perspiring the whole time but maintaining this image that it’s effortless and gorgeous and ethereal.”

Perhaps this is where the true allure of the showgirl really is found. In the busyness of 2025 there is a craving for fantasy. Is there anyone better to emulate than these performers, who have always personified make-believe, flawlessness and a realm where nobody makes a mistake.