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After a long-running stint on the iconic Vegas strip, the showgirls from the revue Jubilee! gave one last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The production, known for its ornate costumes designed by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to dwindling audience numbers and unimpressed critics who called it a spectacle “trapped in time”.

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

The King of Sequins

Dubbed the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glitz his defining aesthetic, dressing everyone from screen legends to music superstars. Recently, a “barely-there” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, well over its estimated price, while a metallic beaded bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.

“In my view it looks more attractive for the younger performer who is seeking something other than what they grew up with”, he stated in an interview with a newspaper. “Contemporary performers are striving for a glamorous, more dramatic, attention-grabbing, memorable statement.”

A Mainstream Comeback

It’s a look that glided all the way to the epicenter of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 largely due to a global pop icon. 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 glittering headpiece were tailor-made for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.

She is part of a trend. This year, showgirl references have been adopted by pop stars including Sabrina Carpenter as they zoomed across world tours in sparkles, strategic openings and ostrich feathers, highlighted against camp sets. Her fashion curator Lorenzo Posocco told a style publication he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the mid-century, her performers waved giant feathered fans.

Drawing from the Past

Modern stars and other chart toppers also take inspiration from classic performances, including burlesque and dance line references. The final look are vastly different from the late-century pop style of revealing tops and utilitarian trousers, and urban dance moves that were popular earlier.

But not everyone are on board with this showgirl revival. An ex-showgirl, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the early 2000s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “used as an catch-all phrase including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even today's icons.”

The Coveted Classic Look

For millennial and young adult stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a famous actress gave a nod to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the actor wore a see-through embellished dress created by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, another pop star paid an private amount to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn earlier in the year to perform at the Grammys. In September, Sabrina Carpenter wore a series of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among vintage enthusiasts.

“Showgirls evoke a sense of longing for a bygone era of glitz,” says an archivist, a curator at the a Las Vegas university, who studies the history of showgirls. “Currently it is viewed as a sort of ‘acceptable’ appeal because it has been modified. It has got all the glamour, the rhinestones and the shine but without the nudity.”

A Than Simply Style: An Symbol of Las Vegas

Chung says this figure are integral to the identity of Vegas. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was surrounded by two showgirls. While Las Vegas does not host any showgirl-centric productions, Jung says they are still used as an symbol of the city, appearing at corporate events and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a remaining icon of Vegas glitz and glamour,” Chung says.

The Appeal of Illusion

Hardy says the complete change of a stage character is part of the attraction. It’s something the singer alludes to in a latest docuseries that shows the backstage action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting practice sessions, workouts and countless concerts across multiple nations, each running for 3.5 hours.

The performer recalls her own stage routines as “similar to running a marathon in heels every night”. Her headdress tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the staircase to the platform from the green rooms three floors below in the underground. I had to head up ahead of time for my entrance so I could rest before I performed. You’re sweating the whole time but maintaining this fantasy that it’s effortless and gorgeous and magical.”

Maybe this is where the appeal of the showgirl really resides. In the complexity of 2025 there is a craving for fantasy. What better figure to emulate than these performers, who have always represented fantasy, flawlessness and a world where no one misses a mark.