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Following a long-running run on the iconic Vegas strip, the dancers from the production Jubilee! executed their last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The show, renowned for its ornate costumes designed by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to declining audience numbers and critical reviewers who described it as a spectacle “trapped in time”.

Today, nearly ten years later, the showgirl, or at least the showgirl style, is back.

The Master of Glitz

Dubbed the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glamour his defining aesthetic, dressing everyone from Hollywood icons to pop royalty. Recently, a “see-through” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, well over its projected value, while a shimmering fringed bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.

“In my view it looks more attractive for the new generation of stars who is seeking something other than what they knew from childhood”, he told a newspaper. “New stars are pushing toward a glamorous, more dramatic, show-stopping, entrance-making statement.”

The Mainstream Revival

It’s a look that glided all the way to the epicenter of popular culture in 2025 largely due to a chart-topping superstar. In the past few months, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The bedazzled bra and thong, plumed armbands and shimmering headpiece were tailor-made for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.

The singer is part of a trend. This year, glamorous nods have been embraced by pop stars including Sabrina Carpenter as they danced across arena stages in sequins, strategic openings and feathers, highlighted against theatrical sets. Lipa’s stylist a fashion expert mentioned in an interview with a style publication he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the 50s, her performers wafted giant plumed accessories.

Drawing from the Past

Modern stars and other successful musicians also take inspiration from 19th-century performances, including classic theater and dance line references. The results are poles apart from the 1990s era teen pop of crop tops and utilitarian trousers, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that came before them.

But some critics are convinced with this showgirl renaissance. A former performer, a ex- Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the 00s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “employed as an broad label encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even today's icons.”

A Coveted Vintage Look

For millennial and millennial stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a famous actress paid tribute to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actress wore a translucent embellished dress created by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, another pop star paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie beaded 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 vintage enthusiasts.

“The showgirl aesthetic bring about fond memories for a past glamour,” says a historian, an expert at the a Las Vegas university, who researches the history of showgirls. “Now it is viewed as a sort of ‘toned-down’ allure because it has been updated. It has got all the elegance, the rhinestones and the sparkle but without the exposure.”

A Than Just Fashion: An Symbol of the City

She says this figure are central to the iconography of Las Vegas. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was surrounded by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas currently lacks any traditional showgirl productions, Chung says they are still featured as an logo of the city, showing up at corporate events and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a remaining figure of Vegas glitz and glamour,” the expert says.

The Appeal of Transformation

Hardy says the magical transformation of a stage character is part of the allure. This is a notion the singer hints at in a latest documentary series that captures the behind-the-scenes action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included intense preparations, training and 149 performances across multiple nations, each running for 3.5 hours.

She describes her own showgirl performances as “like running a marathon in heels every night”. Her headpiece weighed 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the staircase to the stage 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 went on stage. One is sweating the whole time but creating this illusion that it’s effortless and stunning and ethereal.”

Perhaps this is where the true allure of the showgirl fantasy really lies. In the complexity of 2025 there is a desire for escapism. Is there anyone better to emulate than showgirls, who have always embodied fantasy, perfection and a realm where no one falters.