How 'Showgirl Glamour' Became the Dazzling Aesthetic of This Year
After a three-decade run on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the showgirls from the production Jubilee! took a final synchronised kick in 2016. The production, renowned for its intricate costumes designed by style icon Bob Mackie, ended its run due to falling audience numbers and unimpressed commentators who called it a spectacle “trapped in time”.
Today, almost a decade later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl style, is back.
A Master of Sequins
Referred to as the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made over-the-top stage sparkle his defining aesthetic, clothing everyone from Hollywood icons to Madonna. In a recent auction, a “see-through” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, far exceeding its initial estimate, while a silver and gold tasseled bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more attractive for the new generation of stars who is desiring something other than what they grew up with”, he explained to a publication. “Contemporary performers are striving for a theatrical, more theatrical, breathtaking, entrance-making statement.”
A Pop Culture Comeback
It’s a look that glided all the way to the heart of mainstream fashion in 2025 largely due to a chart-topping superstar. Earlier this year, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The bedazzled bra and thong, plumed armbands and glittering headpiece were tailor-made for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift is part of a trend. This year, showgirl references have been incorporated by pop stars including Dua Lipa as they danced across arena stages in sequins, strategic openings and ostrich feathers, spotlighted against theatrical sets. Lipa’s stylist a fashion expert mentioned in an interview with a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the 50s, her performers wafted giant ostrich feather fans.
Pulling from the Past
These artists and other chart toppers also reference classic performances, including vaudeville and dance line references. The outcome are worlds away from the late-century pop style of short shirts and baggy pants, and street-style dance moves that came before them.
But certain observers are on board with this glamour resurgence. A former performer, a ex- Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the early 2000s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word term is being “employed as an catch-all phrase encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even today's icons.”
The Highly Sought-After Vintage Style
For millennial and millennial stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a style icon honored to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the star wore a see-through beaded dress created by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, a singer paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn at an awards show to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a trio of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among collectors.
“This style bring about fond memories for a historical elegance,” says Su Kim Chung, a curator at the an academic institution, who researches the legacy of showgirls. “Now it is viewed as a sort of ‘acceptable’ appeal because it has been updated. It has got all the glamour, the crystals and the shine but without the bare skin.”
More Than Just Style: An Icon of Vegas
The expert says this figure are integral to the imagery of Sin City. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was surrounded by two showgirls. While Las Vegas does not host any showgirl-based productions, the historian says they are still used as an symbol of the city, being present at gatherings and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a remaining figure of Las Vegas glamour,” the expert says.
An Allure of Escape
Nancy Hardy says the complete change of a stage character is part of the appeal. It’s something Taylor Swift references in a recent docuseries that documents the off-camera action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting practice sessions, gym sessions and numerous performances across multiple nations, each lasting 3.5 hours.
Hardy describes her own nights in the spotlight as “comparable to extreme physical exertion in stilettos every night”. Her headpiece was 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the staircase to the performance area from the dressing rooms three floors below in the underground. I had to start early for my moment so I could rest before I performed. You are sweating the whole time but creating this illusion that it’s effortless and beautiful and magical.”
Maybe this is where the true allure of the showgirl fantasy really is found. In the busyness of 2025 there is a craving for escapism. What better figure to look to than such icons, who have always embodied dreams, idealism and a universe where no one misses a mark.
