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After a three-decade stint on the Las Vegas strip, the dancers from the production Jubilee! gave one last synchronised kick in 2016. The production, famous for its ornate costumes designed by style icon Bob Mackie, ended its run due to falling audience numbers and unimpressed reviewers who called it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.

Today, roughly eight years later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl style, is back.

The King of Sequins

Dubbed the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glamour his defining aesthetic, outfitting everyone from Hollywood icons to music superstars. In a recent auction, a “naked” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, seven times its estimated price, while a shimmering tasseled bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.

“In my view it looks more appealing for the younger performer who is seeking something other than what they were accustomed to”, he stated in an interview with a publication. “Contemporary performers are embracing a theatrical, more spectacular, breathtaking, entrance-making statement.”

A Pop Culture Resurgence

It’s a look that made its way all the way to the heart 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, ostrich-feather armbands and shimmering headpiece were perfect for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.

The singer is part of a trend. This year, showgirl inspirations have been adopted by pop stars including Sabrina Carpenter as they danced across arena stages in glitter, strategic openings and feathers, spotlighted against theatrical sets. Her fashion curator a fashion expert mentioned in an interview with a style publication he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the 50s, her performers wafted giant ostrich feather fans.

Drawing from the Past

These artists and other hitmakers also take inspiration from 19th-century performances, including classic theater and dance line references. The results are vastly different from the 1990s era Britney Spears era of crop tops and baggy pants, and street-style dance moves that were popular earlier.

But some critics are on board with this glamour resurgence. An ex-showgirl, a former Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the 2000s says the trend is “puzzling”. 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 Coveted Classic Style

For younger and young adult stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a style icon paid tribute to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the actress wore a semi-sheer beaded dress created by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, another pop star paid an private amount to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn previously to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a trio of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among collectors.

“This style inspire a sense of longing for a bygone era of glitz,” says Su Kim Chung, an expert at the an academic institution, who studies the legacy of showgirls. “Today it is viewed as a sort of ‘acceptable’ sexy because it has been modified. It has got all the elegance, the rhinestones and the sparkle but without the exposure.”

More Than Simply Style: An Icon of the City

She says showgirls are integral to the imagery of Sin City. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was flanked by two showgirls. While Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-based productions, Chung says they are still featured as an symbol of the city, showing up at corporate events and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a lasting figure of Las Vegas glitz and glamour,” she says.

An Appeal of Illusion

Hardy says the complete change of a showgirl is part of the appeal. It’s something Taylor Swift alludes to in a new docuseries that captures the behind-the-scenes action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included intense preparations, workouts and 149 performances across dozens of cities, each going on for 3.5 hours.

She recalls her own nights in the spotlight as “comparable to completing an endurance race in heels every night”. Her headpiece was 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the staircase to the performance area from the dressing rooms three floors below in the underground. I had to head up ahead of time for my moment so I could catch my breath before I performed. You are working hard the whole time but crafting this illusion that it’s simple and stunning and dreamlike.”

Perhaps this is where the appeal of the showgirl fantasy really resides. In the complexity of 2025 there is a craving for escapism. What better figure to emulate than these performers, who have always represented make-believe, perfection and a realm where no one misses a mark.