Why 'Showgirl' Became the Sparkling Look of 2025
Following a 31-year run on the Las Vegas strip, the dancers from the production Jubilee! took a final choreographed kick in 2016. The show, famous for its ornate costumes crafted by style icon Bob Mackie, ended its run due to declining audience numbers and critical commentators who called it a spectacle “trapped in time”.
Now, roughly eight years later, the showgirl, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is back.
The Sultan of Sequins
Referred to as the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made theatrical showgirl glamour his defining aesthetic, dressing everyone from Hollywood icons to pop royalty. Recently, a “barely-there” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, seven times its estimated price, while a metallic fringed bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more enticing for the emerging artists who is seeking something other than what they were accustomed to”, he told a newspaper. “New stars are striving for a glamorous, more theatrical, show-stopping, grand statement.”
The Pop Culture Comeback
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the heart of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 thanks to a global pop icon. In the past few months, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The crystal-covered bra and thong, feathered armbands and shimmering headpiece were ideal for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift has company. This year, glamorous nods have been adopted by singers including Miley Cyrus as they danced across arena stages in sequins, strategic openings and feathers, illuminated against overstated sets. Lipa’s stylist Lorenzo Posocco explained to a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the 50s, Lipa’s dancers fluttered giant feathered fans.
Pulling from the Past
These artists and other successful musicians also draw on 19th-century performances, including vaudeville and dance line references. The outcome are vastly different from the 1990s era pop style of short shirts and utilitarian trousers, and urban dance moves that were popular earlier.
But certain observers are convinced with this glamour resurgence. Nancy Hardy, a ex- Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the 2000s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “employed as an catch-all phrase covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly modern pop stars.”
A Highly Sought-After Retro Look
For millennial and young adult stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a famous actress paid tribute to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the actress wore a see-through beaded dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, a singer paid an private amount to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn earlier in the year to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a series of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among fashion collectors.
“Showgirls evoke nostalgia for a historical elegance,” says an archivist, head of special collections at the University of Nevada, who researches the story of showgirls. “Currently it is considered a sort of ‘acceptable’ appeal because it has been updated. It has got all the glamour, the rhinestones and the glitter but without the bare skin.”
A Than Simply Style: An Symbol of the City
Chung says this figure are key to the identity of Sin City. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was accompanied by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-centric productions, Jung says they are still used as an logo of the city, being present at conventions and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a lasting symbol of Las Vegas glamour,” she says.
The Allure of Escape
Hardy says the transformative effect of a showgirl is part of the attraction. This is a notion Taylor Swift references in a recent behind-the-scenes film that shows the behind-the-scenes action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included intense practice sessions, gym sessions and countless concerts across dozens of cities, each running for 3.5 hours.
She recalls her own nights in the spotlight as “comparable to running a marathon in heels every night”. Her headpiece was 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the staircase to the stage 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 went on stage. One is perspiring the whole time but maintaining this fantasy that it’s easy and stunning and ethereal.”
Maybe this is where the true allure of the showgirl fantasy really is found. In the busyness of 2025 there is a craving for fantasy. Is there anyone better to emulate than these performers, who have always personified dreams, idealism and a world where nobody misses a mark.
