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After a long-running tenure on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the showgirls from the revue Jubilee! executed their last choreographed kick in 2016. The show, known for its intricate costumes designed by style icon Bob Mackie, came to an end due to declining audience numbers and unimpressed reviewers who described it as a spectacle “trapped in time”.

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

A Sultan of Sequins

Known as the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made dramatic stage sparkle his trademark look, outfitting everyone from Hollywood icons to Madonna. In a recent auction, a “see-through” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, seven times its initial estimate, while a shimmering tasseled bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.

“I think it looks more attractive for the emerging artists who is desiring something other than what they grew up with”, he told a newspaper. “Contemporary performers are embracing a show-stopping, more spectacular, attention-grabbing, memorable statement.”

A Mainstream Comeback

It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the centre of popular culture in 2025 propelled by a global pop icon. Earlier this year, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The bedazzled bra and thong, feathered armbands and sparkly headpiece were perfect for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.

The singer isn't alone. This year, glamorous nods have been adopted by music artists including Sabrina Carpenter as they zoomed across arena stages in sequins, cut-outs and feathers, spotlighted against overstated sets. A top stylist her creative director 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 mid-century, her performers wafted giant plumed accessories.

Drawing from Tradition

Lipa, Carpenter and other chart toppers also take inspiration from 19th-century performances, including vaudeville and dance line references. The outcome are poles apart from the 90s teen pop of revealing tops and cargo pants, and street-style dance moves that were popular earlier.

But some critics are on board with this glamour resurgence. An ex-showgirl, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the 2000s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word term is being “used as an broad label encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even Taylor Swift.”

A Highly Sought-After Classic Style

For millennial and modern stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a famous actress paid tribute to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the actress wore a see-through sequined dress created by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, a singer paid an significant price to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn at an awards show to perform at the Grammys. In September, Sabrina Carpenter wore a collection of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among collectors.

“The showgirl aesthetic inspire a sense of longing for a past glamour,” says an archivist, an expert at the University of Nevada, who documents the story of showgirls. “Today it is considered a sort of ‘toned-down’ sexy because it has been updated. It has got all the sophistication, the rhinestones and the glitter but without the bare skin.”

A Than Simply Fashion: An Symbol of Las Vegas

She says the showgirl image are key to the imagery of Vegas. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was surrounded by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-centric productions, Jung says they are still used as an logo of the city, appearing at corporate events and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a remaining figure of Las Vegas glitz and glamour,” Chung says.

An Appeal of Transformation

Hardy says the magical transformation of a showgirl is part of the appeal. It’s something the singer hints at in a latest docuseries that shows the backstage action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting preparations, workouts and countless performances across dozens of cities, each lasting 3.5 hours.

She recalls her own stage routines as “comparable to completing an endurance race in heels every night”. Her headdress tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the stairs to the stage from the backstage area three floors below in the basement. I had to start early for my entrance so I could recover before I made my entrance. You are working hard the whole time but creating this illusion that it’s easy and beautiful and dreamlike.”

Maybe this is where the fascination of the showgirl really is found. In the chaos of 2025 there is a longing for escapism. Is there anyone better to emulate than such icons, who have always embodied dreams, idealism and a realm where nobody misses a mark.