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Following a 31-year run on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the performers from the spectacle Jubilee! gave one last synchronised kick in 2016. The show, renowned for its ornate costumes created by style icon Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to dwindling audience numbers and disappointed critics who called it a spectacle “a relic of another era”.

Currently, almost a decade later, the showgirl, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is back.

The Sultan of Glitz

Referred to as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made over-the-top stage sparkle his trademark look, dressing everyone from Marilyn Monroe to pop royalty. Earlier this month, a “see-through” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, seven times its initial estimate, while a shimmering fringed bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.

“I think it looks more enticing for the new generation of stars who is looking for something other than what they grew up with”, he stated in an interview with a media outlet. “Today's artists are pushing toward a show-stopping, more dramatic, attention-grabbing, entrance-making statement.”

A Musical Revival

It’s a look that made its way all the way to the centre of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 largely due to a chart-topping superstar. Earlier this year, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, feathered armbands and sparkly headpiece were perfect for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.

The singer has company. This year, glamorous nods have been incorporated by pop stars including Sabrina Carpenter as they whizzed across arena stages in glitter, revealing designs and plumes, illuminated against theatrical sets. Lipa’s stylist a fashion expert mentioned in an interview with a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the 50s, her performers fluttered giant feathered fans.

Drawing from the Past

Lipa, Carpenter and other hitmakers also reference 19th-century entertainment forms, including vaudeville and chorus line references. The outcome are poles apart from the 1990s era teen pop of revealing tops and cargo pants, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that came before them.

But some critics are enthusiastic with this showgirl renaissance. Nancy Hardy, a former Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. 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 today's icons.”

A Coveted Classic Style

For younger and millennial stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become incredibly sought-after. In 2024, Zendaya honored to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the star wore a see-through beaded dress made by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, another pop star paid an private amount to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn at an awards show to perform at the Grammys. In September, Sabrina Carpenter wore a collection of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a favorite among vintage enthusiasts.

“Showgirls evoke nostalgia for a past glamour,” says Su Kim Chung, an expert at the an academic institution, who researches the story of showgirls. “Now it is seen as a sort of ‘safe’ allure because it has been updated. It has got all the glamour, the sparkles and the glitter but without the nudity.”

A Than Simply Style: An Icon of Las Vegas

Chung says showgirls are key to the identity of Vegas. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was flanked by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas currently lacks any traditional showgirl productions, Chung says they are still employed as an logo of the city, showing up at gatherings and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a enduring figure of Las Vegas glamour,” Chung says.

The Allure of Illusion

Nancy Hardy says the complete change of a showgirl is part of the allure. This idea the singer references in a recent documentary series that shows the behind-the-scenes action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting preparations, gym sessions and numerous concerts across multiple nations, each lasting 3.5 hours.

Hardy explains her own nights in the spotlight as “like completing an endurance race in high heels every night”. Her feathered headdress was 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the staircase to the performance area from the dressing rooms three floors below in the lower level. I had to start early for my moment so I could catch my breath before I performed. One is working hard the whole time but maintaining this image that it’s effortless and gorgeous and dreamlike.”

Maybe this is where the true allure of the showgirl fantasy really resides. In the chaos of 2025 there is a longing for escapism. Is there anyone better to emulate than such icons, who have always personified fantasy, perfection and a world where nobody makes a mistake.