How 'Showgirl' Emerged as the Dazzling Look of 2025

Following a 31-year run on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the showgirls from the revue Jubilee! took a final choreographed kick in 2016. The show, famous for its elaborate costumes created by style icon Bob Mackie, came to an end due to falling audience numbers and unimpressed commentators who labeled it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.

Currently, almost a decade later, the showgirl persona, or at least the showgirl style, is experiencing a revival.

The King of Glitz

Referred to as the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made dramatic stage sparkle his trademark look, dressing everyone from screen legends to pop royalty. Earlier this month, a “barely-there” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, far exceeding its estimated price, while a silver and gold fringed bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.

“I believe it looks more enticing for the younger performer who is looking for something other than what they grew up with”, he stated in an interview with a publication. “Today's artists are embracing a show-stopping, more spectacular, breathtaking, grand statement.”

A Pop Culture Revival

It’s a look that made its way all the way to the heart of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 propelled by a global pop icon. In the past few months, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, plumed armbands and sparkly headpiece were ideal for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.

The singer is part of a trend. This year, glamorous nods have been incorporated by pop stars including Sabrina Carpenter as they danced across world tours in sparkles, revealing designs and feathers, spotlighted against camp sets. Her fashion curator her creative director mentioned in an interview with a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the 1950s, her performers fluttered giant feathered fans.

Pulling from Tradition

These artists and other hitmakers also reference classic performances, including classic theater and ensemble references. The final look are vastly different from the 90s pop style of revealing tops and baggy pants, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that were popular earlier.

But some critics are convinced with this glamour resurgence. A former performer, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the 2000s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word term is being “treated as an broad label encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly today's icons.”

The Highly Sought-After Retro Look

For gen Z and young adult stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, Zendaya paid tribute to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the star wore a translucent embellished dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he designed 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 at an awards show 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 favorite among fashion collectors.

“Showgirls inspire fond memories for a past glamour,” says Su Kim Chung, an expert at the University of Nevada, who researches the legacy of showgirls. “Now it is seen as a sort of ‘acceptable’ allure because it has been adapted. It has got all the elegance, the crystals and the glitter but without the bare skin.”

A Than Just Style: An Symbol of Las Vegas

Chung says this figure are key to the iconography of Las Vegas. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was surrounded by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas does not host any traditional showgirl productions, the historian says they are still used as an emblem of the city, appearing at conventions and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a remaining symbol of Vegas glamour,” the expert says.

The Appeal of Illusion

Hardy says the magical transformation of a showgirl is part of the attraction. It’s something Swift references in a latest docuseries that shows the off-camera action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting practice sessions, workouts and numerous performances across 21 countries, each lasting 3.5 hours.

She explains her own stage routines as “similar to running a marathon in heels every night”. Her headpiece was 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the steps to the performance area from the green rooms three floors below in the basement. I had to leave early for my cue so I could catch my breath before I made my entrance. You are sweating the whole time but maintaining this image that it’s easy and stunning and dreamlike.”

Perhaps this is where the fascination of the showgirl fantasy really lies. In the complexity of 2025 there is a longing for fantasy. Who better to emulate than these performers, who have always embodied fantasy, perfection and a world where nobody makes a mistake.