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After a 31-year run on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the performers from the production Jubilee! executed their last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The production, known for its intricate costumes created by style icon Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to declining audience numbers and critical reviewers who labeled it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.

Currently, nearly ten years later, the showgirl persona, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is making a comeback.

A Sultan of Sparkle

Dubbed the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made over-the-top stage sparkle his signature style, clothing everyone from Hollywood icons to music superstars. Earlier this month, a “naked” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, seven times its initial estimate, while a metallic fringed bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.

“I believe it looks more attractive for the emerging artists who is looking for something other than what they grew up with”, he stated in an interview with a newspaper. “Today's artists are striving for a theatrical, more spectacular, show-stopping, memorable statement.”

A Mainstream Comeback

It’s a look that glided all the way to the centre of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 propelled by a chart-topping superstar. Recently, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The bedazzled bra and thong, feathered armbands and sparkly headpiece were ideal for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.

She has company. This year, showgirl inspirations have been adopted by pop stars including Miley Cyrus as they zoomed across world tours in glitter, revealing designs and ostrich feathers, highlighted against overstated sets. Lipa’s stylist her creative director mentioned in an interview with a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the 50s, the backup dancers fluttered giant plumed accessories.

Drawing from Tradition

These artists and other successful musicians also reference historical entertainment forms, including burlesque and ensemble references. The outcome are worlds away from the 90s pop style of crop tops and baggy pants, and urban dance moves that were popular earlier.

But certain observers are on board with this glamour resurgence. A former performer, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the early 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “used as an umbrella term covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently Taylor Swift.”

The Highly Sought-After Classic Look

For millennial and millennial stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become incredibly sought-after. In 2024, Zendaya paid tribute to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the actress wore a semi-sheer embellished dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, another pop star paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn at an awards show to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a trio of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a favorite among fashion collectors.

“The showgirl aesthetic inspire nostalgia for a bygone era of glitz,” says an archivist, an expert at the a Las Vegas university, who studies the legacy of showgirls. “Now it is considered a sort of ‘acceptable’ allure because it has been adapted. It has got all the elegance, the rhinestones and the sparkle but without the bare skin.”

A Than Simply Fashion: An Symbol of Vegas

The expert says showgirls are central to the imagery of Vegas. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was flanked by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-centric productions, Jung says they are still employed as an logo of the city, being present at conventions and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a lasting figure of Vegas glitz and glamour,” Chung says.

The Allure of Transformation

Hardy says the transformative effect of a stage character is part of the allure. It’s something Taylor Swift hints at in a latest docuseries that shows the off-camera action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting practice sessions, training and 149 performances across multiple nations, each going on for 3.5 hours.

She describes her own stage routines as “like extreme physical exertion in heels every night”. Her feathered headdress tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the steps to the performance area from the backstage area three floors below in the basement. I had to head up ahead of time for my cue so I could recover before I performed. You’re perspiring the whole time but creating this fantasy that it’s simple and gorgeous and ethereal.”

Perhaps this is where the fascination of the showgirl fantasy really lies. In the chaos of 2025 there is a longing for fantasy. Is there anyone better to emulate than such icons, who have always embodied make-believe, perfection and a universe where nobody falters.