How 'Showgirl Glamour' Became the Glittering Aesthetic of 2025
After a three-decade run on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the performers from the revue Jubilee! took a final perfectly timed kick in 2016. The production, renowned for its elaborate costumes designed by style icon Bob Mackie, came to an end due to falling audience numbers and unimpressed commentators who labeled it a spectacle “trapped in time”.
Currently, roughly eight years later, the showgirl persona, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is experiencing a revival.
The Sultan of Sparkle
Known as the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made dramatic stage sparkle his trademark look, clothing everyone from screen legends to Madonna. Earlier this month, a “see-through” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, far exceeding its initial estimate, while a metallic fringed bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more appealing for the new generation of stars who is seeking something other than what they knew from childhood”, he stated in an interview with a media outlet. “New stars are striving for a show-stopping, more dramatic, show-stopping, memorable statement.”
The Pop Culture Resurgence
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the heart of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 largely due to Taylor Swift. In the past few months, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, feathered armbands and sparkly headpiece were ideal for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift is part of a trend. This year, showgirl inspirations have been incorporated by music artists including Miley Cyrus as they whizzed across concert platforms in sparkles, strategic openings and feathers, highlighted against camp sets. Her fashion curator a fashion expert mentioned in an interview with a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the mid-century, her performers fluttered giant feathered fans.
Pulling from the Past
Modern stars and other hitmakers also take inspiration from historical performances, including vaudeville and ensemble references. The results are worlds away from the late-century Britney Spears era of short shirts and cargo pants, and urban dance moves that came before them.
But not everyone are convinced with this showgirl renaissance. An ex-showgirl, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the 00s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “employed as an umbrella term including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently modern pop stars.”
A Highly Sought-After Classic Look
For millennial and modern stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, Zendaya paid tribute to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actress wore a see-through beaded dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, Miley Cyrus paid an private amount to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn earlier in the year to perform at the Grammys. In September, the singer wore a series of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a favorite among fashion collectors.
“The showgirl aesthetic inspire nostalgia for a bygone era of glitz,” says an archivist, an expert at the an academic institution, who researches the legacy of showgirls. “Currently it is viewed as a sort of ‘acceptable’ allure because it has been updated. It has got all the sophistication, the rhinestones and the shine but without the bare skin.”
A Than Simply Style: An Icon of Las Vegas
She says the showgirl image are central to the imagery of Sin City. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was surrounded by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas does not host any showgirl-centric productions, Jung says they are still employed as an emblem of the city, showing up at gatherings and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a lasting icon of Las Vegas glitz and glamour,” Chung says.
An Appeal of Illusion
Nancy Hardy says the complete change of a showgirl persona is part of the allure. It’s something the singer references in a latest behind-the-scenes film that shows the backstage action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included intense practice sessions, workouts and countless concerts across dozens of cities, each going on for 3.5 hours.
The performer recalls her own stage routines as “like extreme physical exertion in heels every night”. Her feathered headdress was 34lbs. “I had to carry 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 moment so I could catch my breath before I performed. You are perspiring the whole time but maintaining this image that it’s simple and gorgeous and ethereal.”
Maybe this is where the fascination of the showgirl really lies. In the chaos of 2025 there is a craving for fantasy. What better figure to emulate than showgirls, who have always embodied dreams, perfection and a universe where nobody misses a mark.
