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Following a long-running run on the Las Vegas strip, the dancers from the revue Jubilee! executed their last synchronised kick in 2016. The show, famous for its elaborate costumes crafted by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to falling audience numbers and disappointed critics who described it as a spectacle “a relic of another era”.

Now, almost a decade later, showgirls, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is experiencing a revival.

A Sultan of Sparkle

Dubbed the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made over-the-top showgirl glamour his signature style, clothing everyone from screen legends to pop royalty. In a recent auction, a “naked” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, far exceeding its initial estimate, while a shimmering tasseled bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.

“I think it looks more attractive for the new generation of stars who is seeking something other than what they grew up with”, he stated in an interview with a media outlet. “Contemporary performers are embracing a show-stopping, more theatrical, show-stopping, grand statement.”

A Pop Culture Revival

It’s a look that glided all the way to the centre of popular culture in 2025 largely due to Taylor Swift. In the past few months, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The crystal-covered bra and thong, plumed armbands and sparkly headpiece were ideal for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.

Swift is part of a trend. This year, glamorous nods have been incorporated by singers including Dua Lipa as they zoomed across world tours in sequins, revealing designs and ostrich feathers, highlighted against theatrical sets. Her fashion curator her creative director mentioned in an interview with a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” 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 successful musicians also draw on 19th-century entertainment forms, including classic theater and ensemble references. The results are poles apart from the 90s pop style of short shirts and baggy pants, and street-style dance moves that preceded this trend.

But not everyone are on board with this showgirl renaissance. A former performer, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the early 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “used as an broad label covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently Taylor Swift.”

The Coveted Classic Style

For gen Z and millennial stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a style icon paid tribute to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the actor wore a translucent beaded dress created by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, Miley Cyrus paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn previously to perform at the Grammys. In September, Sabrina Carpenter wore a collection of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among fashion collectors.

“Showgirls evoke nostalgia for a historical elegance,” says a historian, a curator at the University of Nevada, who documents the history of showgirls. “Currently it is viewed as a sort of ‘acceptable’ allure because it has been updated. It has got all the glamour, the crystals and the shine but without the exposure.”

A Than Simply Fashion: An Icon of Las Vegas

Chung says showgirls are central to the identity of Sin City. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was flanked by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-based productions, Chung says they are still featured as an logo of the city, appearing at gatherings and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a enduring figure of Vegas glitz and glamour,” she says.

The Appeal of Transformation

Nancy Hardy says the magical transformation of a stage character is part of the attraction. This is a notion the singer hints at in a new docuseries that captures the off-camera action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling preparations, training and numerous concerts across multiple nations, each lasting 3.5 hours.

She describes her own nights in the spotlight as “comparable to completing an endurance race in high heels every night”. Her headpiece weighed 34lbs. “I had to support 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 entrance so I could catch my breath before I went on stage. You’re perspiring the whole time but maintaining this image that it’s effortless and gorgeous and magical.”

It could be this is where the appeal of the showgirl fantasy really is found. In the busyness of 2025 there is a craving for fantasy. What better figure to look to than showgirls, who have always embodied dreams, perfection and a realm where no one falters.