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After a long-running run on the iconic Vegas strip, the showgirls from the revue Jubilee! executed their last synchronised kick in 2016. The show, renowned for its elaborate costumes crafted by style icon Bob Mackie, ended its run due to declining audience numbers and critical critics who called it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.

Now, roughly eight years later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl style, is back.

A King of Glitz

Referred to as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glitz his trademark look, dressing everyone from screen legends to Madonna. Earlier this month, a “see-through” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, far exceeding its projected value, while a silver and gold beaded bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.

“I think it looks more enticing for the new generation of stars who is looking for something other than what they were accustomed to”, he stated in an interview with a media outlet. “New stars are embracing a show-stopping, more theatrical, breathtaking, entrance-making statement.”

The Pop Culture Comeback

It’s a look that glided all the way to the centre of popular culture in 2025 propelled by a chart-topping superstar. Recently, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and sparkly headpiece were tailor-made for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.

Swift is part of a trend. This year, showgirl inspirations have been embraced by singers including Dua Lipa as they zoomed across concert platforms in sequins, strategic openings and plumes, highlighted against camp sets. Her fashion curator Lorenzo Posocco mentioned in an interview with a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the 1950s, the backup dancers waved giant feathered fans.

Drawing from Tradition

These artists and other chart toppers also take inspiration from historical entertainment forms, including vaudeville and dance line references. The results are poles apart from the late-century pop style of crop tops and baggy pants, and street-style dance moves that came before them.

But some critics are enthusiastic with this showgirl revival. A former performer, a ex- Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the early 2000s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word term is being “employed as an umbrella term covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even today's icons.”

The Coveted Classic Style

For younger and modern stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a style icon gave a nod to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actress wore a semi-sheer beaded dress created by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, a singer paid an significant price to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn at an awards show to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a trio of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among fashion collectors.

“This style inspire nostalgia for a bygone era of glitz,” says Su Kim Chung, an expert at the a Las Vegas university, who studies the history of showgirls. “Today it is viewed as a sort of ‘safe’ sexy because it has been modified. It has got all the elegance, the rhinestones and the shine but without the nudity.”

More Than Just Style: An Symbol of Vegas

Chung says the showgirl image are integral to the iconography of Vegas. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was accompanied by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas does not host any showgirl-centric productions, the historian says they are still used as an emblem of the city, showing up at gatherings and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a enduring icon of Vegas glamour,” the expert says.

The Allure of Illusion

Nancy Hardy says the complete change of a stage character is part of the appeal. This is a notion Swift references in a latest docuseries that shows the backstage action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting practice sessions, training and numerous concerts across 21 countries, each going on for 3.5 hours.

Hardy describes her own showgirl performances as “like completing an endurance race in stilettos every night”. Her headpiece was 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 made my entrance. You are perspiring the whole time but crafting this fantasy that it’s effortless and beautiful and ethereal.”

Perhaps this is where the appeal of the showgirl really lies. In the busyness of 2025 there is a desire for a break from reality. What better figure to turn to than showgirls, who have always personified make-believe, perfection and a universe where nobody falters.