How 'Showgirl Glamour' Became the Glittering Style of 2025
Following a three-decade tenure on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the dancers from the production Jubilee! executed their last synchronised kick in 2016. The show, famous for its elaborate costumes crafted by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to declining audience numbers and unimpressed reviewers who called it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Now, roughly eight years later, showgirls, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is back.
The King of Sparkle
Dubbed the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made over-the-top showgirl glamour his trademark look, dressing everyone from Hollywood icons to music superstars. In a recent auction, a “see-through” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, well over its projected value, while a shimmering fringed bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more attractive for the emerging artists who is looking for something other than what they grew up with”, he explained to a media outlet. “Today's artists are embracing a theatrical, more dramatic, breathtaking, entrance-making statement.”
The Pop Culture Revival
It’s a look that glided all the way to the epicenter of mainstream fashion in 2025 propelled by a chart-topping superstar. In the past few months, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The crystal-covered bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and shimmering headpiece were ideal for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer is part of a trend. This year, glamorous nods have been adopted by pop stars including Sabrina Carpenter as they whizzed across world tours in sequins, strategic openings and plumes, spotlighted against theatrical sets. Lipa’s stylist her creative director explained to a style publication he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the mid-century, the backup dancers wafted giant feathered fans.
Drawing from History
These artists and other chart toppers also reference classic entertainment forms, including burlesque and chorus line references. The final look are vastly different from the 1990s era pop style of short shirts and utilitarian trousers, and street-style dance moves that were popular earlier.
But not everyone are on board with this showgirl revival. An ex-showgirl, a ex- Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word term is being “treated as an umbrella term encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even modern pop stars.”
A Highly Sought-After Vintage Look
For younger and millennial stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a famous actress honored to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actress wore a translucent beaded dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, a singer paid an private amount to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn earlier in the year 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.
“This style evoke a sense of longing for a historical elegance,” says Su Kim Chung, an expert at the an academic institution, who studies the history of showgirls. “Currently it is seen as a sort of ‘safe’ sexy because it has been adapted. It has got all the sophistication, the crystals and the sparkle but without the exposure.”
A Than Just Style: An Symbol of the City
She says this figure are central to the identity of Las Vegas. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was accompanied by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas does not host any traditional showgirl productions, Chung says they are still employed as an logo of the city, appearing at conventions and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a lasting icon of Las Vegas glamour,” Chung says.
The Allure of Transformation
Nancy Hardy says the complete change of a stage character is part of the appeal. It’s something the singer references in a recent behind-the-scenes film that shows the backstage action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included intense rehearsals, gym sessions and countless concerts across 21 countries, each going on for 3.5 hours.
Hardy explains her own nights in the spotlight as “comparable to running a marathon in stilettos every night”. Her headpiece was 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 basement. I had to head up ahead of time for my cue so I could catch my breath before I went on stage. One is working hard the whole time but crafting this image that it’s simple and stunning and ethereal.”
Maybe this is where the appeal of the showgirl really resides. In the busyness of 2025 there is a longing for fantasy. Who better to look to than these performers, who have always personified make-believe, flawlessness and a realm where nobody falters.