Why 'Showgirl' Emerged as the Sparkling Look of 2025
After a long-running run on the Las Vegas strip, the performers from the spectacle Jubilee! gave one last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The production, known for its ornate costumes designed by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to dwindling audience numbers and critical critics who described it as a spectacle “trapped in time”.
Now, roughly eight years later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl style, is back.
The Master of Glitz
Known as the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made theatrical showgirl glitz his signature style, outfitting everyone from Marilyn Monroe to music superstars. Earlier this month, a “barely-there” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, seven times its projected value, while a shimmering fringed bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more attractive for the younger performer who is looking for something other than what they knew from childhood”, he stated in an interview with a media outlet. “New stars are pushing toward a theatrical, more spectacular, show-stopping, entrance-making statement.”
The Pop Culture Revival
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the centre of popular culture in 2025 propelled by a chart-topping superstar. In the past few months, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The bedazzled bra and thong, plumed armbands and sparkly headpiece were perfect for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
She has company. This year, showgirl references have been incorporated by music artists including Sabrina Carpenter as they danced across arena stages in sparkles, strategic openings and ostrich feathers, highlighted against theatrical sets. Lipa’s stylist a fashion expert explained to Vogue he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the mid-century, Lipa’s dancers wafted giant plumed accessories.
Drawing from History
Lipa, Carpenter and other hitmakers also draw on 19th-century performances, including vaudeville and chorus line references. The final look are worlds away from the late-century Britney Spears era of crop tops and utilitarian trousers, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that came before them.
But certain observers are convinced with this showgirl revival. An ex-showgirl, a former Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the 2000s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “employed as an umbrella term encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly Taylor Swift.”
The Coveted Classic Look
For millennial and young adult stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a famous actress gave a nod to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the star wore a semi-sheer beaded dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, 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, Carpenter wore a trio of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among collectors.
“This style evoke nostalgia for a past glamour,” says a historian, a curator at the a Las Vegas university, who documents the history of showgirls. “Now it is considered a sort of ‘toned-down’ sexy because it has been modified. It has got all the elegance, the crystals and the shine but without the bare skin.”
A Than Just Style: An Icon of Vegas
She says this figure are integral to the identity of Las Vegas. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was surrounded by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas does not host any showgirl-based productions, Chung says they are still employed as an logo of the city, being present at conventions and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a remaining symbol of Vegas glamour,” Chung says.
An Allure of Escape
Hardy says the magical transformation of a stage character is part of the appeal. This idea Swift hints at in a new docuseries that documents the off-camera action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting practice sessions, gym sessions and numerous performances across multiple nations, each lasting 3.5 hours.
Hardy describes her own nights in the spotlight as “similar to extreme physical exertion in high heels every night”. Her headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the steps to the stage from the dressing rooms three floors below in the underground. I had to leave early for my cue so I could rest before I performed. You’re working hard the whole time but maintaining this fantasy that it’s effortless and beautiful and magical.”
It could be this is where the appeal of the showgirl really lies. In the chaos of 2025 there is a desire for fantasy. Who better to look to than showgirls, who have always represented make-believe, flawlessness and a world where nobody misses a mark.