Ziggy Stardust (character)

One of the costumes designed by Kansai Yamamoto for Ziggy Stardust.[4]

Ziggy Stardust had a bright red mullet.[5] On his forehead, there was a large circle painted using metallic paint. The character had pale skin, described by Bowie as a “snow-white tan”.[6] The haircut achieved widespread mainstream success in popular fashion, as Bowie himself stated in 1993 "[The Ziggy cut] became to hairdressing in the early seventies, what the Lady Di cut was for the early eighties. Only with double the appeal, because it worked for both sexes."[7] Long and slender, Ziggy was dressed in glamourous outfits often with flared legs and shoulders, and an open chest. In addition to this, red boots and lipstick were frequently worn.[5] In total, seven costumes were designed for Ziggy Stardust by the Japanese designer Kansai Yamamoto.[8] Some of the costumes designed for Ziggy Stardust were originally designed by Yamamoto for women, in the kabuki tradition.[9]

The appearance of Ziggy Stardust achieved several goals. The look of an alien rock ‘n’ roll star was reached by the exuberant nature of the costumes as well as pale skin, artificially coloured hair, and ornate make-up.[10] Furthermore, the androgyny of the character was achieved via Bowie’s attention not to dress in a way which would be associated with any gender, that is, avoiding pre-exisiting societal gender standards in his clothing. This example of gender-bending was a continuation of his experiments throughout his two previous albums. The look became a defining one in Bowie’s career and would go on to influence other characters into his future such as Aladdin Sane and Halloween Jack.

Makeup

An example of traditional Japanese kabuki makeup.

In 1973, Bowie visited Japan and met the kabuki theatre star Tomasu Boru, who taught him about traditional Japanese makeup techniques. In an interview with Mirabelle Magazine in 1973, Boru said:

David tells us that mostly all of his makeup comes from a little shop in Rome, Italy, that imports fantastic coloured powders and creams from India. (He's not telling the name of the store, however!!!) Basic essentials also include a white rice powder from Tokyo's Woolworth's equivalent - Indian kohl usually in black - for his eyes, which he smudges right along the lash line and sometimes a little bit on the outside. He also uses a very light liquid base, sometimes white - sometimes pink or yellow - and applies it with a damp sponge. For stage, David will often use an iridescent base, usually pure white. When he paints that gold circle on his forehead that's such a hit with his fans he uses a German gold base in cake form bought at New York's Makeup Centre. He also told us that the little Japanese brushes that the Makeup Centre has for applying powders and paints are much better than anything you can find in Japan.[11]

By the end of the Stardust period in 1973, Bowie would spend at least two hours before each concert to have his makeup done.[11]

During the Man who Sold the World and Hunky Dory years, Bowie appeared androgynous, wearing dresses on the record covers.[12] He accumulated a cult following amongst fans in the United States, and his home United Kingdom. After the release of the latter album in 1971, he began to tour America promoting it, where he became an icon amongst the New York gay community due to his being a rare example of a non-macho male pop star.[13] This newfound popularity encouraged Bowie to further experiment with his look and take the androgynous element that had previously made him successful to an extreme, finally evolving into the formation of a fully-fledged character in the form of Ziggy Stardust.[14]

Name

Bowie's friend and collaborator Iggy Pop in concert in 1973.

The name Ziggy Stardust has multiple possible derivations. Ziggy rhymes with Iggy, for Iggy Pop, a musician who worked closely with Bowie as well as being a close friend of his. It also rhymes with Twiggy, the name of a model who appeared with him on the cover of his 1973 album Pin-Ups. In an interview with Rolling Stone, he remarked that Ziggy was “once of the few Christian names [he] could find with the letter ‘Z’. In an interview with Q, Bowie stated:

The Ziggy bit came from a tailor's that I passed on the train one day. It had that Iggy connotation but it was a tailor's shop, and I thought, Well, this whole thing is gonna be about clothes, so it was my own little joke calling him Ziggy. So Ziggy Stardust was a real compilation of things.[15]

Stardust came from the Legendary Stardust Cowboy, the stage name of singer Norman Carl Odam.[16]

Much of the Ziggy Stardust story was created by Bowie and told in the album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, or appears in Bowie’s writings as plans for a never-realised theatrical performance of the narrative. The character of Ziggy Stardust is conceived to have been an androgynous, omnisexual alien rock star from an unspecified planet, who was sent to earth to deliver the message that Earth had five years left, due to a lack of natural resources. Meanwhile, children around the world have become obsessed with rock ‘n’ roll music, and look came to look to the rock star Ziggy Stardust as a prophet.[16]

Ziggy gathered a large following, as adults are too preoccupied with the minutiae of their own lives to pay attention to their children. The children become obsessed with Ziggy’s hedonistic way of life. As the end nears, Stardust prophesises of the “Starman” waiting in the sky, who will come to save the earth. At the end of it all, Ziggy is torn apart on stage by black holes. This was reflective of Bowie’s paranoia that he would be killed on stage during a performance in real life, especially after his announcement that he was gay (a claim that he would later rescind). The character show’s Bowie’s paranoia, and the difficulties of living as a larger than life celebrit.y[16]

The character received success around the world. In Bowie’s words “I was a Messiah, especially on that first American tour”. Bowie made controversial statements concerning his stage presence where he compared himself numerous times to Adolf Hitler — “… I might have been a bloody good Hitler. I’d be an excellent dictator. Very eccentric and quite mad” [17] — for which he received a lot of negative press and was accused of fascist tendencies over the following years. His arrival in America heralded the largest following around a touring British artist since the Beatles almost a decade earlier, which had a detrimental impact on his mental health as he struggled to cope with the fame and turned to drugs, such as cocaine to deal with this.[5] The character went on to influence the glam rock genre and fashion wave, as well as Bowie’s next character, Aladdin Sane, who was intended to be a more grounded version of Ziggy.[18]

By 1973, the character had been on tour for almost a year without pause, with further tours to China and the Soviet Union planned by Bowie’s management for the future. Because of the intense nature of his touring life, Bowie felt as though the character was affecting his own personality and sanity too much. The lines between the character and the performer were blurred, and due to concerns over his own mental health[19], David Bowie retired Ziggy Stardust after a live concert on 3 July 1973, at the Hammersmith Odeon in front of 3,500 fans. He said “Of all the shows on this tour, this particular show will remain with us the longest, because not only is it the last show of the tour, but it's the last show that we'll ever do”.[1] The fans and press took this to mean that Bowie was retiring entirely causing much media attention, however it only referred to the Ziggy Stardust persona, and the Spiders from Mars backing band. The concert featured an 18-song set, with Jeff Beck joining the band for a medley of The Jean Genie and Love Me Do.[1]