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After a long-running run on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the performers from the revue Jubilee! gave one last choreographed kick in 2016. The show, known for its intricate costumes crafted by style icon Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to falling audience numbers and critical commentators who called it a spectacle “trapped in time”.

Today, nearly ten years later, the showgirl, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is back.

A Sultan of Glitz

Known as the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made dramatic stage sparkle his trademark look, dressing everyone from Hollywood icons to music superstars. Recently, a “barely-there” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, far exceeding its estimated price, while a silver and gold beaded bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.

“I believe it looks more attractive for the emerging artists who is seeking something other than what they knew from childhood”, he explained to a media outlet. “Contemporary performers are pushing toward a theatrical, more spectacular, attention-grabbing, memorable statement.”

The Musical 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. Earlier this year, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The bedazzled bra and thong, feathered armbands and sparkly headpiece were tailor-made for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.

She isn't alone. This year, showgirl inspirations have been incorporated by pop stars including Miley Cyrus as they whizzed across concert platforms in glitter, cut-outs and feathers, illuminated against overstated sets. A top stylist Lorenzo Posocco told a style publication he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the 50s, the backup dancers fluttered giant plumed accessories.

Drawing from the Past

Modern stars and other successful musicians also reference 19th-century performances, including vaudeville and dance line references. The final look are poles apart from the 90s pop style of short shirts and utilitarian trousers, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that came before them.

But not everyone are convinced with this glamour resurgence. Nancy Hardy, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the early 2000s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “employed as an catch-all phrase encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently Taylor Swift.”

A Coveted Vintage Style

For gen Z and modern stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a style icon gave a nod to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the actress wore a translucent sequined dress created by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, Miley Cyrus 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, the singer wore a series of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among fashion collectors.

“The showgirl aesthetic evoke nostalgia for a past glamour,” says an archivist, a curator at the a Las Vegas university, who researches the legacy of showgirls. “Now it is considered a sort of ‘toned-down’ allure because it has been updated. It has got all the elegance, the rhinestones and the sparkle but without the nudity.”

A Than Just Style: An Symbol of Las Vegas

She says this figure are central to the imagery of Vegas. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was flanked by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas currently lacks any traditional showgirl productions, Chung says they are still featured as an logo of the city, appearing at corporate events and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a lasting figure of Vegas glamour,” she says.

An Allure of Escape

Nancy Hardy says the complete change of a stage character is part of the attraction. It’s something Swift alludes to in a new docuseries that documents the off-camera action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling preparations, training and numerous shows across multiple nations, each lasting 3.5 hours.

The performer explains her own showgirl performances as “like extreme physical exertion in high heels every night”. Her headdress was 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the staircase to the platform from the backstage area three floors below in the lower level. I had to start early for my entrance so I could catch my breath before I went on stage. One is perspiring the whole time but creating this illusion that it’s simple and gorgeous and magical.”

It could be this is where the true allure of the showgirl fantasy really resides. In the complexity of 2025 there is a longing for escapism. Is there anyone better to emulate than these performers, who have always represented dreams, perfection and a universe where nobody misses a mark.