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After a 31-year run on the Las Vegas strip, the showgirls from the spectacle Jubilee! executed their last synchronised kick in 2016. The extravaganza, renowned for its ornate costumes created by style icon Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to falling audience numbers and disappointed reviewers who labeled it a spectacle “trapped in time”.

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

A King of Sequins

Dubbed the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made over-the-top stage sparkle his signature style, outfitting everyone from Hollywood icons to Madonna. Earlier this month, a “naked” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, well over its estimated price, while a silver and gold fringed bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.

“I believe it looks more enticing for the emerging artists who is looking for something other than what they knew from childhood”, he told a newspaper. “Today's artists are embracing a glamorous, more spectacular, breathtaking, memorable statement.”

The Mainstream Resurgence

It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the epicenter of mainstream fashion in 2025 thanks to Taylor Swift. In the past few months, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The bedazzled bra and thong, plumed armbands and glittering headpiece were tailor-made for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.

Swift isn't alone. This year, showgirl inspirations have been embraced by singers including Sabrina Carpenter as they zoomed across arena stages in glitter, revealing designs and plumes, illuminated against theatrical sets. Her fashion curator her creative director explained to a style publication he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the 50s, the backup dancers fluttered giant ostrich feather fans.

Pulling from History

Modern stars and other chart toppers also draw on classic entertainment forms, including burlesque and ensemble references. The outcome are poles apart from the 1990s era pop style of short shirts and baggy pants, and street-style dance moves that were popular earlier.

But some critics are enthusiastic with this glamour resurgence. An ex-showgirl, a ex- Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the 00s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “treated as an umbrella term including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently Taylor Swift.”

A Highly Sought-After Classic Style

For younger and modern stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a famous actress honored to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actress wore a translucent embellished dress made by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, a singer paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn earlier in the year to perform at the Grammys. In September, Sabrina Carpenter wore a trio of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a favorite among vintage enthusiasts.

“This style evoke fond memories for a historical elegance,” says Su Kim Chung, an expert at the a Las Vegas university, who studies the story of showgirls. “Today it is viewed as a sort of ‘safe’ appeal because it has been updated. It has got all the elegance, the sparkles and the shine but without the nudity.”

A Than Simply Style: An Icon of the City

Chung says the showgirl image are central to the identity of Vegas. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was flanked by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-based productions, Jung says they are still used as an logo of the city, showing up at conventions and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a enduring symbol of Vegas glitz and glamour,” the expert says.

An Allure of Transformation

Nancy Hardy says the complete change of a showgirl persona is part of the attraction. This is a notion Swift alludes to in a recent documentary series that shows the backstage action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting rehearsals, workouts and numerous performances across multiple nations, each going on for 3.5 hours.

Hardy describes her own nights in the spotlight as “similar to running a marathon in stilettos every night”. Her headpiece tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the steps to the stage from the backstage area 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. One is sweating the whole time but crafting this illusion that it’s easy and gorgeous and dreamlike.”

Maybe this is where the fascination of the showgirl really resides. In the chaos of 2025 there is a longing for a break from reality. What better figure to emulate than showgirls, who have always personified fantasy, idealism and a world where nobody misses a mark.