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Following a 31-year run on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the showgirls from the production Jubilee! gave one last choreographed kick in 2016. The production, famous for its ornate costumes created by style icon Bob Mackie, came to an end due to dwindling audience numbers and critical critics who called it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.

Now, nearly ten years later, the showgirl, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is making a comeback.

A Master of Sparkle

Dubbed the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glamour his trademark look, clothing everyone from Hollywood icons to Madonna. Earlier this month, a “barely-there” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, well over its estimated price, while a shimmering tasseled bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.

“I believe it looks more attractive for the younger performer who is desiring something other than what they knew from childhood”, he stated in an interview with a media outlet. “Today's artists are pushing toward a show-stopping, more theatrical, attention-grabbing, grand statement.”

The Mainstream Comeback

It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the epicenter of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 largely due to a global pop icon. In the past few months, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The bedazzled bra and thong, plumed armbands and glittering headpiece were ideal for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.

She is part of a trend. This year, showgirl inspirations have been adopted by singers including Sabrina Carpenter as they danced across concert platforms in sparkles, revealing designs and feathers, illuminated against overstated sets. A top stylist Lorenzo Posocco explained to a style publication he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the 50s, her performers wafted giant plumed accessories.

Pulling from the Past

Modern stars and other successful musicians also draw on historical entertainment forms, including burlesque and ensemble references. The final look are poles apart from the late-century teen pop of short shirts and cargo pants, and street-style dance moves that came before them.

But not everyone are on board with this showgirl renaissance. Nancy Hardy, a former Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “used as an umbrella term covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even modern pop stars.”

The Coveted Vintage Style

For younger and modern stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a famous actress gave a nod to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actor wore a translucent beaded dress created by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, Miley Cyrus 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 retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among collectors.

“Showgirls evoke fond memories for a bygone era of glitz,” says a historian, a curator at the an academic institution, who documents the story of showgirls. “Today it is considered a sort of ‘safe’ allure because it has been updated. It has got all the sophistication, the sparkles and the sparkle but without the bare skin.”

A Than Just Style: An Icon of the City

She says the showgirl image are central to the imagery of Sin City. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was surrounded by two showgirls. While Las Vegas currently lacks any traditional showgirl productions, the historian says they are still employed as an symbol of the city, showing up at gatherings and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a lasting symbol of Las Vegas glitz and glamour,” she says.

The Allure of Illusion

Nancy Hardy says the transformative effect of a showgirl is part of the attraction. It’s something Taylor Swift references in a recent documentary series that captures the backstage action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting practice sessions, training and 149 shows across 21 countries, each lasting 3.5 hours.

Hardy describes her own nights in the spotlight as “comparable to completing an endurance race in high heels every night”. Her headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the staircase to the platform from the dressing rooms three floors below in the lower level. I had to head up ahead of time for my cue so I could rest before I went on stage. You are sweating the whole time but maintaining this fantasy that it’s easy and stunning and dreamlike.”

Maybe this is where the fascination of the showgirl fantasy really is found. In the busyness of 2025 there is a desire for fantasy. What better figure to look to than these performers, who have always personified fantasy, idealism and a world where no one falters.