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Following a long-running stint on the Las Vegas strip, the dancers from the spectacle Jubilee! executed their last synchronised kick in 2016. The production, known for its ornate costumes created by style icon Bob Mackie, came to an end due to falling audience numbers and disappointed reviewers who called it a spectacle “trapped in time”.

Currently, nearly ten years later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is making a comeback.

The Master of Sparkle

Known as the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made over-the-top stage sparkle his signature style, outfitting everyone from Hollywood icons to music superstars. In a recent auction, a “see-through” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, far exceeding its estimated price, while a silver and gold fringed bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.

“I think it looks more enticing for the new generation of stars who is desiring something other than what they knew from childhood”, he told a newspaper. “New stars are striving for a glamorous, more theatrical, breathtaking, memorable statement.”

A Pop Culture Revival

It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the epicenter of popular culture in 2025 propelled by a global pop icon. In the past few months, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The crystal-covered bra and thong, plumed armbands and glittering headpiece were ideal for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.

She is part of a trend. This year, glamorous nods have been adopted by music artists including Miley Cyrus as they whizzed across arena stages in sparkles, revealing designs and feathers, spotlighted against theatrical sets. A top stylist a fashion expert told a style publication he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the 50s, the backup dancers waved giant feathered fans.

Drawing from History

Lipa, Carpenter and other hitmakers also reference historical performances, including burlesque and dance line references. The final look are poles apart from the 90s pop style of revealing tops and baggy pants, and urban dance moves that came before them.

But some critics are on board with this showgirl revival. Nancy Hardy, a former Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the 2000s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word term is being “used as an broad label covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently modern pop stars.”

A Highly Sought-After Retro Look

For millennial and millennial stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become incredibly sought-after. In 2024, a style icon honored to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the star wore a see-through embellished dress created by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, a singer paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn at an awards show 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 popular item among fashion collectors.

“Showgirls inspire nostalgia for a bygone era of glitz,” says Su Kim Chung, head of special collections at the University of Nevada, who studies the history of showgirls. “Currently it is considered a sort of ‘safe’ sexy because it has been modified. It has got all the sophistication, the sparkles and the sparkle but without the bare skin.”

More Than Simply Fashion: An Symbol of Las Vegas

Chung says showgirls are key to the iconography of Las Vegas. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was flanked by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas does not host any traditional showgirl productions, the historian says they are still used as an emblem of the city, showing up at corporate events and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a lasting figure of Vegas spectacle,” Chung says.

The Appeal of Escape

Hardy says the complete change of a showgirl persona is part of the appeal. It’s something the singer hints at in a new behind-the-scenes film that documents the backstage action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included intense rehearsals, gym sessions and numerous concerts across dozens of cities, each lasting 3.5 hours.

Hardy recalls her own stage routines as “similar to completing an endurance race in heels every night”. Her headpiece weighed 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the steps to the performance area from the backstage area three floors below in the lower level. I had to leave early for my moment so I could recover before I went on stage. You’re perspiring the whole time but maintaining this fantasy that it’s simple and stunning and dreamlike.”

It could be this is where the appeal of the showgirl really is found. In the complexity of 2025 there is a longing for escapism. Who better to look to than these performers, who have always represented make-believe, perfection and a universe where nobody misses a mark.