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After a 31-year stint on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the performers from the revue Jubilee! took a final choreographed kick in 2016. The production, known for its intricate costumes designed by style icon Bob Mackie, came to an end due to declining audience numbers and unimpressed reviewers who called it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.

Now, almost a decade later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is making a comeback.

A Master of Sparkle

Referred to as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made dramatic stage sparkle his defining aesthetic, dressing everyone from Hollywood icons to music superstars. Recently, a “naked” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, well over its estimated price, while a silver and gold tasseled bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.

“I think it looks more appealing for the emerging artists who is looking for something other than what they grew up with”, he explained to a newspaper. “New stars are pushing toward a glamorous, more dramatic, show-stopping, entrance-making statement.”

The Mainstream Comeback

It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the centre of mainstream fashion in 2025 propelled by a chart-topping superstar. In the past few months, the cultural juggernaut 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 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 singers including Miley Cyrus as they whizzed across world tours in sequins, revealing designs and feathers, highlighted against overstated sets. Lipa’s stylist her creative director told a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the mid-century, Lipa’s dancers wafted giant ostrich feather fans.

Drawing from History

Lipa, Carpenter and other hitmakers also take inspiration from classic entertainment forms, including classic theater and ensemble references. The final look are poles apart from the late-century Britney Spears era of short shirts and utilitarian trousers, and urban dance moves that came before them.

But not everyone are on board with this showgirl revival. Nancy Hardy, a former Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the 2000s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “treated as an umbrella term including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly modern pop stars.”

The Coveted Vintage Style

For millennial and modern stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a style icon honored to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the star wore a see-through embellished dress made by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, Miley Cyrus paid an significant price to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn earlier in the year to perform at the Grammys. In September, the singer wore a series of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a favorite among vintage enthusiasts.

“This style bring about fond memories for a historical elegance,” says an archivist, head of special collections at the University of Nevada, who documents the story of showgirls. “Now it is viewed as a sort of ‘acceptable’ sexy because it has been adapted. It has got all the glamour, the sparkles and the sparkle but without the nudity.”

More Than Simply Style: An Icon of the City

The expert says the showgirl image are integral to the iconography of Vegas. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was flanked by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas does not host any showgirl-based productions, Chung says they are still used as an emblem of the city, appearing at gatherings and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a lasting symbol of Las Vegas spectacle,” the expert says.

The Allure of Illusion

The former showgirl says the magical transformation of a showgirl is part of the attraction. This idea the singer alludes to in a new behind-the-scenes film that captures the behind-the-scenes action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting rehearsals, training and numerous performances across dozens of cities, each going on for 3.5 hours.

Hardy recalls her own showgirl performances as “like running a marathon in stilettos every night”. Her headpiece was 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the steps to the stage from the backstage area three floors below in the basement. I had to leave early for my entrance so I could rest before I went on stage. You are perspiring the whole time but maintaining this fantasy that it’s simple and stunning and magical.”

Maybe this is where the true allure of the showgirl fantasy really lies. In the complexity of 2025 there is a desire for fantasy. Is there anyone better to turn to than showgirls, who have always represented make-believe, idealism and a world where nobody misses a mark.