Why 'Showgirl Glamour' Emerged as the Sparkling Look of 2025

After a long-running stint on the iconic Vegas strip, the performers from the production Jubilee! executed their last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The show, famous for its ornate costumes designed by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, ended its run due to dwindling audience numbers and unimpressed reviewers who called it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.

Now, almost a decade later, showgirls, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is making a comeback.

A Sultan of Sequins

Referred to as the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made dramatic stage sparkle his signature style, outfitting everyone from screen legends to music superstars. Recently, a “naked” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, seven times its initial estimate, while a metallic tasseled bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.

“I believe it looks more attractive for the new generation of stars who is seeking something other than what they grew up with”, he told a publication. “New stars are striving for a glamorous, more dramatic, attention-grabbing, memorable statement.”

A Pop Culture Comeback

It’s a look that glided all the way to the centre of popular culture in 2025 thanks to a chart-topping superstar. Recently, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The bedazzled bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and sparkly headpiece were ideal for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.

The singer isn't alone. This year, showgirl references have been incorporated by music artists including Dua Lipa as they zoomed across concert platforms in sparkles, strategic openings and ostrich feathers, spotlighted against overstated sets. A top stylist her creative director told Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the 1950s, Lipa’s dancers wafted giant ostrich feather fans.

Drawing from the Past

Modern stars and other chart toppers also take inspiration from 19th-century performances, including vaudeville and chorus line references. The outcome are poles apart from the 90s pop style of revealing tops and utilitarian trousers, and urban dance moves that came before them.

But some critics are convinced with this glamour resurgence. An ex-showgirl, a former Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the early 2000s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word term is being “treated as an umbrella term covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently today's icons.”

The Coveted Retro Look

For millennial and millennial stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, Zendaya honored to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the actress wore a see-through beaded dress made by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, a singer paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn previously to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a collection of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a favorite among collectors.

“The showgirl aesthetic inspire nostalgia for a bygone era of glitz,” says an archivist, a curator at the a Las Vegas university, who studies the story of showgirls. “Today it is viewed as a sort of ‘toned-down’ appeal because it has been adapted. It has got all the sophistication, the crystals and the glitter but without the bare skin.”

More Than Simply Style: An Icon of the City

The expert says this figure are central to the imagery of Vegas. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was accompanied by two showgirls. While Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-centric productions, Jung says they are still used as an logo of the city, showing up at corporate events and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a remaining icon of Vegas spectacle,” Chung says.

An Appeal of Escape

Hardy says the complete change of a showgirl is part of the allure. This idea Swift references in a recent behind-the-scenes film that captures the off-camera action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included intense preparations, workouts and countless performances across 21 countries, each going on for 3.5 hours.

The performer explains her own showgirl performances as “comparable to running a marathon in high heels every night”. Her headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the stairs to the performance area from the dressing rooms three floors below in the underground. I had to start early for my entrance so I could rest before I made my entrance. You’re perspiring the whole time but maintaining this fantasy that it’s effortless and stunning and ethereal.”

It could be this is where the true allure of the showgirl really resides. In the busyness of 2025 there is a desire for fantasy. Who better to emulate than showgirls, who have always personified make-believe, flawlessness and a universe where nobody misses a mark.