Why 'Showgirl Glamour' Became the Sparkling Aesthetic of 2025
After a 31-year run on the Las Vegas strip, the dancers from the revue Jubilee! executed their last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The production, famous for its intricate costumes created by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, ended its run due to dwindling audience numbers and unimpressed commentators who described it as a spectacle “trapped in time”.
Currently, nearly ten years later, the showgirl persona, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is back.
A Master of Sequins
Dubbed the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made over-the-top showgirl glamour his signature style, outfitting everyone from screen legends to music superstars. Earlier this month, a “naked” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, seven times its projected value, while a shimmering tasseled bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more appealing for the younger performer who is seeking something other than what they knew from childhood”, he told a media outlet. “New stars are striving for a theatrical, more spectacular, attention-grabbing, grand statement.”
The Musical Revival
It’s a look that glided all the way to the epicenter of popular culture in 2025 propelled by a global pop icon. Recently, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, plumed armbands and glittering headpiece were perfect for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
She isn't alone. This year, showgirl inspirations 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. A top stylist Lorenzo Posocco explained to a style publication he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the 50s, the backup dancers wafted giant feathered fans.
Drawing from the Past
These artists and other chart toppers also take inspiration from historical entertainment forms, including burlesque and chorus line references. The outcome are vastly different from the 90s teen pop of short shirts and baggy pants, and urban dance moves that were popular earlier.
But not everyone are on board with this showgirl revival. A former performer, a former Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the early 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “employed as an broad label including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly today's icons.”
The Coveted Vintage Look
For younger and young adult stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become incredibly sought-after. In 2024, a famous actress gave a nod to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the actor wore a semi-sheer embellished dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, Miley Cyrus paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn earlier in the year 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 popular item among vintage enthusiasts.
“This style inspire a sense of longing for a bygone era of glitz,” says a historian, head of special collections at the an academic institution, who studies the legacy of showgirls. “Now it is seen as a sort of ‘safe’ appeal because it has been modified. It has got all the elegance, the rhinestones and the glitter but without the exposure.”
More Than Simply Style: An Symbol of Las Vegas
The expert says the showgirl image are key to the imagery of Sin City. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was accompanied by two showgirls. While Las Vegas does not host any showgirl-centric productions, the historian says they are still featured as an logo of the city, appearing at corporate events and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a lasting symbol of Vegas spectacle,” Chung says.
An Appeal of Transformation
Nancy Hardy says the transformative effect of a showgirl is part of the allure. This is a notion the singer hints at in a new documentary series that captures the off-camera action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included intense preparations, gym sessions and numerous concerts across 21 countries, each going on for 3.5 hours.
She explains her own showgirl performances as “comparable to completing an endurance race in stilettos every night”. Her headpiece weighed 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the steps to the platform from the backstage area three floors below in the basement. I had to head up ahead of time for my moment so I could recover before I performed. You are working hard the whole time but maintaining this image that it’s effortless and gorgeous and ethereal.”
Maybe this is where the true allure of the showgirl fantasy really lies. In the busyness of 2025 there is a desire for escapism. What better figure to emulate than showgirls, who have always represented make-believe, idealism and a world where nobody falters.
