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After a 31-year run on the iconic Vegas strip, the performers from the revue Jubilee! gave one last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The production, famous for its intricate costumes created by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, came to an end due to declining audience numbers and unimpressed commentators who called it a spectacle “a relic of another era”.

Now, roughly eight years later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is back.

The Master of Glitz

Dubbed the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made dramatic stage sparkle his signature style, dressing everyone from Hollywood icons to music superstars. Earlier this month, a “barely-there” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, far exceeding its initial estimate, while a silver and gold beaded bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.

“In my view it looks more enticing for the emerging artists who is seeking something other than what they knew from childhood”, he stated in an interview with a publication. “New stars are pushing toward a glamorous, more dramatic, show-stopping, entrance-making statement.”

The Pop Culture Comeback

It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the centre of popular culture in 2025 largely due to a chart-topping superstar. Recently, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and shimmering headpiece were perfect for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.

She isn't alone. This year, showgirl references have been incorporated by music artists including Sabrina Carpenter as they zoomed across concert platforms in glitter, cut-outs and ostrich feathers, illuminated against overstated sets. Her fashion curator Lorenzo Posocco explained to Vogue he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the mid-century, her performers waved giant feathered fans.

Drawing from Tradition

These artists and other chart toppers also take inspiration from 19th-century performances, including burlesque and chorus line references. The final look are worlds away from the 90s Britney Spears era of crop tops and cargo pants, and urban dance moves that came before them.

But some critics are enthusiastic with this glamour resurgence. Nancy Hardy, a former Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the early 2000s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “used as an broad label encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly modern pop stars.”

The Highly Sought-After Vintage Style

For younger and young adult stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a style icon honored to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the actress wore a see-through sequined dress created by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, another pop star paid an significant price to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn previously to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a collection of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a favorite among fashion collectors.

“The showgirl aesthetic bring about fond memories for a bygone era of glitz,” says an archivist, an expert at the a Las Vegas university, who studies the history of showgirls. “Now it is considered a sort of ‘safe’ allure because it has been modified. It has got all the glamour, the sparkles and the shine but without the exposure.”

More Than Simply Style: An Icon of Las Vegas

The expert says showgirls are integral to the iconography of Vegas. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was accompanied by two showgirls. While Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-centric productions, Jung says they are still employed as an symbol of the city, being present at conventions and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a remaining figure of Vegas glamour,” the expert says.

The Allure of Escape

The former showgirl says the magical transformation of a showgirl is part of the allure. It’s something the singer hints at in a latest docuseries that documents the off-camera action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting rehearsals, training and countless shows across dozens of cities, each lasting 3.5 hours.

Hardy recalls her own stage routines as “comparable to running a marathon in heels every night”. Her headpiece weighed 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the staircase to the platform from the green rooms three floors below in the lower level. I had to start early for my moment so I could recover before I performed. You are working hard the whole time but creating this image that it’s easy and beautiful and magical.”

It could be this is where the appeal of the showgirl really resides. In the busyness of 2025 there is a craving for a break from reality. What better figure to look to than these performers, who have always represented fantasy, flawlessness and a world where no one makes a mistake.