How 'Showgirl' Became the Dazzling Style of This Year
After a long-running run on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the dancers from the spectacle Jubilee! gave one last choreographed kick in 2016. The show, renowned for its intricate costumes created by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, ended its run due to dwindling audience numbers and disappointed commentators who labeled it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Currently, roughly eight years later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl style, is making a comeback.
The Sultan of Sequins
Dubbed the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made over-the-top showgirl glamour his signature style, outfitting everyone from Hollywood icons to music superstars. Recently, a “naked” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, seven times its projected value, while a metallic tasseled bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more enticing for the younger performer who is desiring something other than what they were accustomed to”, he explained to a media outlet. “Today's artists are embracing a show-stopping, more dramatic, attention-grabbing, memorable statement.”
The Pop Culture Resurgence
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the epicenter of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 thanks to Taylor Swift. Recently, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, feathered armbands and shimmering headpiece were ideal for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer isn't alone. This year, showgirl inspirations have been adopted by music artists including Miley Cyrus as they zoomed across concert platforms in sparkles, strategic openings and plumes, illuminated against theatrical sets. Her fashion curator Lorenzo Posocco told a style publication he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the 50s, her performers fluttered giant plumed accessories.
Pulling from Tradition
Modern stars and other hitmakers also draw on classic entertainment forms, including classic theater and chorus line references. The results are poles apart from the 1990s era Britney Spears era of short shirts and baggy pants, and urban dance moves that preceded this trend.
But certain observers are enthusiastic with this showgirl renaissance. Nancy Hardy, a former Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the early 2000s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “treated as an broad label including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even Taylor Swift.”
A Coveted Classic Look
For millennial and millennial stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, Zendaya honored to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the star wore a semi-sheer beaded dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, a singer paid an significant price to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn at an awards show to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a collection of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among collectors.
“Showgirls inspire fond memories for a historical elegance,” says an archivist, a curator at the an academic institution, who documents the legacy of showgirls. “Today it is seen as a sort of ‘acceptable’ sexy because it has been adapted. It has got all the sophistication, the rhinestones and the sparkle but without the bare skin.”
A Than Just Style: An Symbol of the City
The expert says this figure are integral to the imagery of Las Vegas. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was flanked by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas does not host any showgirl-centric productions, Chung says they are still featured as an symbol of the city, being present at corporate events and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a lasting figure of Las Vegas spectacle,” the expert says.
The Appeal of Transformation
Nancy Hardy says the transformative effect of a showgirl persona is part of the attraction. This idea the singer references in a recent behind-the-scenes film that shows the off-camera action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting practice sessions, workouts and 149 concerts across 21 countries, each running for 3.5 hours.
She describes her own nights in the spotlight as “similar to extreme physical exertion in heels every night”. Her headpiece was 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the steps to the performance area from the green rooms three floors below in the basement. I had to leave early for my entrance so I could catch my breath before I performed. One is sweating the whole time but creating this fantasy that it’s effortless and beautiful and dreamlike.”
Maybe this is where the true allure of the showgirl really resides. In the chaos of 2025 there is a longing for fantasy. Is there anyone better to look to than such icons, who have always embodied make-believe, flawlessness and a realm where nobody misses a mark.
