How 'Showgirl' Became the Sparkling Aesthetic of 2025
After a long-running run on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the showgirls from the revue Jubilee! took a final synchronised kick in 2016. The production, known for its ornate costumes crafted by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, ended its run due to falling audience numbers and critical critics who labeled it a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Today, almost a decade later, the showgirl persona, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is making a comeback.
The Sultan of Sparkle
Dubbed the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glitz his trademark look, dressing everyone from screen legends to Madonna. Recently, a “barely-there” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, seven times its initial estimate, while a shimmering fringed bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more enticing for the new generation of stars who is desiring something other than what they were accustomed to”, he explained to a publication. “Contemporary performers are pushing toward a theatrical, more dramatic, attention-grabbing, entrance-making statement.”
The Mainstream Comeback
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the heart of mainstream fashion in 2025 propelled by a chart-topping superstar. Recently, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The bedazzled bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and shimmering headpiece were perfect for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer is part of a trend. This year, showgirl inspirations have been incorporated by singers including Dua Lipa as they zoomed across world tours in sequins, cut-outs and plumes, spotlighted against camp sets. A top stylist her creative director told Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the 1950s, her performers wafted giant plumed accessories.
Drawing from Tradition
These artists and other hitmakers also reference classic entertainment forms, including vaudeville and chorus line references. The final look are vastly different from the late-century pop style of revealing tops and utilitarian trousers, and street-style dance moves that came before them.
But not everyone are convinced with this showgirl renaissance. Nancy Hardy, a ex- Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the 00s 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 apparently Taylor Swift.”
The Coveted Retro Style
For millennial and modern stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a style icon paid tribute to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the star wore a semi-sheer beaded dress made by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, a singer paid an significant price to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn previously 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 fashion collectors.
“The showgirl aesthetic evoke nostalgia for a past glamour,” says an archivist, an expert at the a Las Vegas university, who documents the history of showgirls. “Today it is considered a sort of ‘safe’ allure because it has been adapted. It has got all the elegance, the crystals and the glitter but without the nudity.”
More Than Simply Style: An Symbol of Vegas
The expert says showgirls are key to the identity of Vegas. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was flanked by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-centric productions, the historian says they are still featured as an symbol of the city, appearing at gatherings and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a enduring figure of Las Vegas glitz and glamour,” she says.
An Allure of Escape
Hardy says the complete change of a showgirl persona is part of the appeal. This idea Swift hints at in a new docuseries that documents the behind-the-scenes action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting rehearsals, workouts and numerous shows across 21 countries, each going on for 3.5 hours.
Hardy describes her own showgirl performances as “like running a marathon in heels every night”. Her feathered headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the staircase to the performance area from the green rooms three floors below in the basement. I had to start early for my cue so I could rest before I went on stage. You are perspiring the whole time but maintaining this image that it’s easy and beautiful and dreamlike.”
Perhaps this is where the true allure of the showgirl fantasy really is found. In the complexity of 2025 there is a desire for escapism. Is there anyone better to look to than these performers, who have always personified dreams, flawlessness and a realm where no one misses a mark.
