How 'Showgirl' Became the Dazzling Aesthetic of 2025
After a three-decade stint on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the performers from the spectacle Jubilee! gave one last synchronised kick in 2016. The show, known for its elaborate costumes crafted by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, ended its run due to falling audience numbers and critical commentators who labeled it a spectacle “trapped in time”.
Currently, nearly ten years later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is back.
The Master of Sparkle
Known as the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made over-the-top stage sparkle his signature style, clothing everyone from screen legends to pop royalty. Recently, a “naked” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, well over its estimated price, while a shimmering fringed bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more enticing for the emerging artists who is looking for something other than what they were accustomed to”, he told a newspaper. “Today's artists are embracing a glamorous, more spectacular, show-stopping, grand statement.”
A Musical Comeback
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the centre of mainstream fashion in 2025 largely due to Taylor Swift. Earlier this year, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, plumed armbands and sparkly headpiece were tailor-made for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
She has company. This year, showgirl references have been embraced by pop stars including Dua Lipa as they whizzed across concert platforms in glitter, strategic openings and feathers, highlighted against theatrical sets. Lipa’s stylist a fashion expert told Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the 50s, Lipa’s dancers waved giant plumed accessories.
Pulling from History
Lipa, Carpenter and other chart toppers also take inspiration from 19th-century entertainment forms, including burlesque and ensemble references. The results are poles apart from the late-century pop style of revealing tops and baggy pants, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that were popular earlier.
But some critics are convinced 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 “treated as an catch-all phrase encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even Taylor Swift.”
A Highly Sought-After Retro Style
For millennial and modern stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become incredibly sought-after. In 2024, a style icon honored to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, 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. Months after, another pop star paid an private amount to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn earlier in the year 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 hit among vintage enthusiasts.
“This style inspire nostalgia for a past glamour,” says a historian, a curator at the an academic institution, who researches the story of showgirls. “Currently it is seen as a sort of ‘safe’ appeal because it has been adapted. It has got all the sophistication, the rhinestones and the sparkle but without the exposure.”
A Than Just Fashion: An Icon of Las Vegas
The expert says this figure are central to the iconography of Vegas. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was accompanied by two showgirls. While Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-centric productions, the historian says they are still used as an emblem of the city, appearing at conventions and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a remaining figure of Vegas glitz and glamour,” the expert says.
The Appeal of Transformation
The former showgirl says the magical transformation of a stage character is part of the attraction. This is a notion Swift references in a latest docuseries that captures the off-camera action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling preparations, training and 149 shows across dozens of cities, each lasting 3.5 hours.
She recalls her own stage routines as “similar to completing an endurance race in heels every night”. Her headpiece weighed 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the staircase to the stage from the dressing rooms three floors below in the lower level. I had to leave early for my entrance so I could rest before I performed. You’re working hard the whole time but maintaining this image that it’s easy and gorgeous and magical.”
Perhaps this is where the fascination of the showgirl fantasy really is found. In the busyness of 2025 there is a longing for a break from reality. Is there anyone better to emulate than these performers, who have always represented fantasy, flawlessness and a world where nobody makes a mistake.