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After a three-decade run on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the dancers from the spectacle Jubilee! gave one last synchronised kick in 2016. The extravaganza, renowned for its ornate costumes designed by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, ended its run due to falling audience numbers and critical commentators who called it a spectacle “a relic of another era”.

Today, roughly eight years later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl style, is experiencing a revival.

The Master of Glitz

Dubbed the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made theatrical showgirl glitz his defining aesthetic, dressing everyone from Marilyn Monroe to music superstars. Earlier this month, a “barely-there” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, seven times its initial estimate, while a metallic beaded bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.

“I believe it looks more enticing for the younger performer who is seeking something other than what they knew from childhood”, he told a publication. “Contemporary performers are pushing toward a theatrical, more spectacular, show-stopping, memorable statement.”

A Musical Revival

It’s a look that glided all the way to the centre of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 propelled by a global pop icon. In the past few months, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The crystal-covered bra and thong, plumed armbands and sparkly headpiece were tailor-made for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.

The singer isn't alone. This year, showgirl references have been adopted by singers including Miley Cyrus as they zoomed across world tours in sequins, revealing designs and plumes, illuminated against camp sets. Her fashion curator Lorenzo Posocco explained to a style publication he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the 1950s, Lipa’s dancers waved giant ostrich feather fans.

Drawing from the Past

These artists and other successful musicians also take inspiration from historical performances, including classic theater and chorus line references. The outcome are worlds away from the late-century pop style of revealing tops and utilitarian trousers, and street-style dance moves that came before them.

But certain observers are enthusiastic with this glamour resurgence. Nancy Hardy, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the 00s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “used as an umbrella term encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly Taylor Swift.”

The Highly Sought-After Classic Look

For millennial and young adult stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a famous actress paid tribute to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the actor wore a translucent embellished dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, Miley Cyrus paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn previously to perform at the Grammys. In September, the singer wore a series of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among vintage enthusiasts.

“The showgirl aesthetic evoke nostalgia for a bygone era of glitz,” says a historian, an expert at the an academic institution, who studies the history of showgirls. “Currently it is seen as a sort of ‘acceptable’ appeal because it has been modified. It has got all the elegance, the rhinestones and the glitter but without the nudity.”

A Than Simply Style: An Icon of Las Vegas

Chung says showgirls are central to the iconography of Las Vegas. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was accompanied by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-based productions, Chung says they are still featured as an emblem of the city, appearing at corporate events and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a lasting symbol of Vegas glamour,” the expert says.

The Appeal of Transformation

Hardy says the transformative effect of a showgirl persona is part of the allure. This idea the singer hints at in a recent docuseries that documents the backstage action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included intense preparations, workouts and 149 performances across multiple nations, each lasting 3.5 hours.

Hardy describes her own showgirl performances as “comparable to completing an endurance race in heels every night”. Her headpiece tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the stairs to the platform from the green rooms three floors below in the underground. I had to head up ahead of time for my cue so I could recover before I made my entrance. You are sweating the whole time but creating this image that it’s effortless and gorgeous and ethereal.”

Maybe this is where the appeal of the showgirl fantasy really is found. In the chaos of 2025 there is a desire for escapism. What better figure to look to than such icons, who have always represented dreams, idealism and a realm where nobody falters.