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After a 31-year stint on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the showgirls from the production Jubilee! gave one last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The production, famous for its intricate costumes crafted by style icon Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to declining audience numbers and disappointed reviewers who described it as a spectacle “trapped in time”.

Now, roughly eight years later, the showgirl persona, or at least the showgirl style, is making a comeback.

A King of Sparkle

Dubbed the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glitz his signature style, clothing everyone from screen legends to pop royalty. In a recent auction, a “see-through” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, well over its estimated price, while a metallic beaded bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.

“I think it looks more attractive for the younger performer who is desiring something other than what they were accustomed to”, he explained to a media outlet. “Contemporary performers are striving for a theatrical, more spectacular, breathtaking, memorable statement.”

A Pop Culture Revival

It’s a look that glided all the way to the centre of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 thanks to a global pop icon. In the past few months, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, plumed armbands and shimmering headpiece were tailor-made for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.

She has company. This year, showgirl inspirations have been embraced by music artists including Dua Lipa as they zoomed across world tours in glitter, strategic openings and plumes, spotlighted against camp sets. Lipa’s stylist her creative director mentioned in an interview with Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the mid-century, her performers waved giant feathered fans.

Drawing from the Past

These artists and other successful musicians also reference historical performances, including vaudeville and dance line references. The final look are poles apart from the 1990s era Britney Spears era of short shirts and utilitarian trousers, and urban dance moves that were popular earlier.

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

The Highly Sought-After Classic Look

For millennial and young adult stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become incredibly sought-after. In 2024, a style icon honored to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the star wore a translucent embellished dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, Miley Cyrus paid an private amount to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn at an awards show to perform at the Grammys. In September, the singer wore a series of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a favorite among fashion collectors.

“This style bring about a sense of longing for a bygone era of glitz,” says an archivist, a curator at the University of Nevada, who studies the legacy of showgirls. “Currently it is viewed as a sort of ‘safe’ appeal because it has been adapted. It has got all the sophistication, the rhinestones and the glitter but without the exposure.”

A Than Simply Fashion: An Icon of Vegas

She says the showgirl image are central to the iconography of Vegas. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was accompanied by two showgirls. While Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-based productions, Chung says they are still used as an logo of the city, being present at corporate events and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a lasting icon of Las Vegas spectacle,” the expert says.

An Allure of Transformation

Nancy Hardy says the magical transformation of a showgirl persona is part of the appeal. This is a notion the singer references in a latest docuseries that shows the behind-the-scenes action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included intense practice sessions, workouts and numerous shows across multiple nations, each running for 3.5 hours.

Hardy describes her own stage routines as “comparable to running a marathon in heels every night”. Her feathered headdress was 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the steps to the stage from the backstage area three floors below in the underground. I had to start early for my entrance so I could recover before I went on stage. You are working hard the whole time but crafting this illusion that it’s easy and gorgeous and magical.”

It could be this is where the true allure of the showgirl fantasy really lies. In the chaos of 2025 there is a longing for fantasy. Is there anyone better to look to than such icons, who have always embodied dreams, idealism and a world where nobody misses a mark.