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After a long-running tenure on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the performers from the revue Jubilee! took a final perfectly timed kick in 2016. The show, known for its ornate costumes crafted by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, came to an end due to declining audience numbers and critical commentators who described it as a spectacle “trapped in time”.

Currently, almost a decade later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is making a comeback.

A Master of Sequins

Dubbed the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made over-the-top showgirl glamour his trademark look, clothing everyone from Hollywood icons to pop royalty. Recently, a “barely-there” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, well over its initial estimate, while a silver and gold beaded bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.

“I think it looks more appealing for the new generation of stars who is seeking something other than what they were accustomed to”, he told a publication. “New stars are embracing a theatrical, more theatrical, attention-grabbing, grand statement.”

A Musical Revival

It’s a look that glided all the way to the epicenter of popular culture in 2025 thanks to a chart-topping superstar. In the past few months, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The bedazzled bra and thong, feathered armbands and shimmering headpiece were tailor-made for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.

Swift is part of a trend. This year, showgirl references have been adopted by singers including Miley Cyrus as they zoomed across arena stages in glitter, cut-outs and ostrich feathers, illuminated against overstated sets. A top stylist a fashion expert told a style publication he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the 50s, Lipa’s dancers fluttered giant plumed accessories.

Pulling from the Past

These artists and other chart toppers also take inspiration from 19th-century performances, including classic theater and chorus line references. The outcome are vastly different from the 1990s era pop style of revealing tops and utilitarian trousers, and street-style dance moves that preceded this trend.

But not everyone are enthusiastic with this glamour resurgence. Nancy Hardy, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the 00s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “employed as an umbrella term encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently Taylor Swift.”

The Coveted Retro Style

For younger and millennial stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a famous actress honored to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the actor wore a semi-sheer beaded dress made by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, a singer paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn at an awards show to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a collection of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a favorite among vintage enthusiasts.

“Showgirls bring about a sense of longing for a past glamour,” says a historian, head of special collections at the University of Nevada, who studies the legacy of showgirls. “Now it is considered a sort of ‘acceptable’ sexy because it has been modified. It has got all the sophistication, the crystals and the shine but without the nudity.”

More Than Just Style: An Symbol of the City

The expert says showgirls are central to the iconography of Sin City. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was flanked by two showgirls. While Las Vegas does not host any showgirl-based productions, the historian says they are still employed as an logo of the city, appearing at gatherings and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a remaining symbol of Vegas glitz and glamour,” the expert says.

The Appeal of Escape

Nancy Hardy says the transformative effect of a stage character is part of the attraction. It’s something Swift hints at in a recent behind-the-scenes film that shows the backstage action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling rehearsals, workouts and 149 shows across 21 countries, each lasting 3.5 hours.

Hardy describes her own stage routines as “like completing an endurance race in heels every night”. Her headdress was 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the stairs to the performance area from the backstage area three floors below in the basement. I had to head up ahead of time for my entrance so I could catch my breath before I performed. One is working hard the whole time but crafting this illusion that it’s easy and stunning and dreamlike.”

It could be this is where the appeal of the showgirl really resides. In the busyness of 2025 there is a desire for a break from reality. Is there anyone better to emulate than these performers, who have always represented fantasy, flawlessness and a realm where nobody misses a mark.