Why 'Showgirl Glamour' Emerged as the Glittering Style of 2025

Following a long-running stint on the iconic Vegas strip, the dancers from the revue Jubilee! executed their last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The extravaganza, renowned for its elaborate costumes designed by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, ended its run due to dwindling audience numbers and critical critics who described it as a spectacle “stuck in the past”.

Now, nearly ten years later, the showgirl, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is back.

A King of Sparkle

Known as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made theatrical stage sparkle his defining aesthetic, outfitting everyone from screen legends to music superstars. Recently, a “barely-there” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, far exceeding its initial estimate, while a shimmering fringed bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.

“I believe it looks more attractive for the emerging artists who is looking for something other than what they knew from childhood”, he stated in an interview with a media outlet. “Today's artists are striving for a glamorous, more theatrical, breathtaking, entrance-making statement.”

A Pop Culture Revival

It’s a look that glided all the way to the centre of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 largely due to a chart-topping superstar. Recently, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The bedazzled bra and thong, plumed armbands and shimmering headpiece were tailor-made for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.

The singer isn't alone. This year, glamorous nods have been incorporated by music artists including Miley Cyrus as they danced across arena stages in sparkles, cut-outs and plumes, spotlighted against camp sets. A top stylist a fashion expert told a style publication he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the 50s, her performers fluttered giant feathered fans.

Drawing from Tradition

Modern stars and other hitmakers also take inspiration from 19th-century entertainment forms, including burlesque and chorus line references. The results are vastly different from the late-century pop style of revealing tops and baggy pants, and street-style dance moves that preceded this trend.

But not everyone are enthusiastic with this showgirl revival. A former performer, a former Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the 2000s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “treated as an catch-all phrase including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even Taylor Swift.”

The Highly Sought-After Vintage Look

For gen Z and millennial stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a style icon paid tribute to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the star wore a see-through sequined dress made by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, Miley Cyrus paid an private amount to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn at an awards show to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a series of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among vintage enthusiasts.

“The showgirl aesthetic bring about a sense of longing for a bygone era of glitz,” says Su Kim Chung, a curator at the a Las Vegas university, who researches the story of showgirls. “Today it is considered a sort of ‘acceptable’ allure because it has been adapted. It has got all the sophistication, the crystals and the sparkle but without the nudity.”

More Than Just Fashion: An Icon of the City

Chung says this figure are integral to the identity of Sin City. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was surrounded by two showgirls. While Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-centric productions, Jung says they are still used as an symbol of the city, appearing at corporate events and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a enduring symbol of Vegas spectacle,” she says.

An Appeal of Transformation

Hardy says the transformative effect of a showgirl is part of the allure. This is a notion Swift alludes to in a new behind-the-scenes film that shows the backstage action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included intense practice sessions, workouts and 149 concerts across 21 countries, each lasting 3.5 hours.

She describes her own nights in the spotlight as “similar to running a marathon in high heels every night”. Her headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the staircase to the stage from the green rooms three floors below in the underground. I had to start early for my cue so I could rest before I went on stage. One is working hard the whole time but maintaining this illusion that it’s effortless and gorgeous and dreamlike.”

Perhaps this is where the appeal of the showgirl fantasy really lies. In the complexity of 2025 there is a desire for a break from reality. What better figure to turn to than showgirls, who have always represented make-believe, flawlessness and a universe where nobody makes a mistake.