Before Harry Styles donned a skirt on the cover of Vogue and Lady Gaga wore bedazzled jumpsuits and meat dresses, there was David Bowie, star-studded and the ultimate original.

Red hair ablaze and unafraid of self expression, Bowie used his Glam Rock style and “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars” and “Aladdin Sane” eras to establish his credibility as a muse in the modern world. He was androgynous, otherworldly and seemingly doomed, the absolute best of a late 20th century rock star. But what inspired Ziggy Stardust, himself? Who created the cultural icon that is “Bowie?”

Enter Kansai Yamamoto (1944-2020), a Japanese fashion designer known for his “Kabuki” designs, the style commonly found as a theatrical portrayal of the wealthy elite, according to an article from The Cut. Yamamoto, obsessed with Japanese “irezumi” tattoos, projected his fascination onto the identity of Ziggy Stardust, adding to everything the character was: theatrical, extravagant and dramatic — in other words, perfectly Bowie.

Before Bowie and Yamamoto’s relationship began, Yamamoto was already a fashion pioneer, being the first Japanese designer to walk the runway in London Fashion Week in 1971, according to Rolling Stone. He is most well known, however, for his impact on Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane personas.

David Bowie (1947-2016), musician and song writer, always knew who Ziggy Stardust was meant to be: a queer, androgynous alien, sent down from Mars as a messiah to save the people of Earth.

“Ziggy is advised in a dream by the infinites to write the coming of a starman … this amazing spaceman who will be coming down to save the Earth,” Bowie explained to William S. Burroughs in an interview with Rolling Stone. Prior to meeting Yamamoto, Bowie already had a concept of the Ziggy Stardust, drawing on mime training and his desire for theatricality.

In an interview with executive Joe Smith in 1988, Bowie said that “[Ziggy Stardust] was half out of sky-fi rock and half out of the Japanese theater…the clothes were at that time simply outrageous...nobody had seen anything like that before.”

When Bowie and Yamamoto first met, Bowie couldn’t actually afford the designer’s work — he could afford a knock-off of Yamamoto’s shoes from a local cobbler, though. The first piece of Yamamoto’s that Bowie purchased was a leather romper he called a “silly bunny costume,” according to archival project “David Bowie is the subject” from the Victoria and Albert Museum.

It wasn’t until 1972, when Bowie could finally commission pieces from Yamamoto, that their relationship began to bloom, resulting in a beautiful partnership between the two artists.

Bowie was heavily inspired by the hikinuki, a quick costume change on stage that appealed to the identity and ostentatious nature of Ziggy, according to Kevin Cann, the author of “David Bowie: Any Day Now; The London Years, 1947–1974.” The influence of Japanese fashion was deeply important for the characterization of Ziggy, making the style and aesthetics feel even more unreachable and awe-inspiring to western audiences.

Yamamoto helped Bowie explore the performance of gender and sexuality within fashion. According to an article from The Cut, he said he approached dressing Bowie in the same way he approached dressing a woman: “I found David’s aesthetic and interest in transcending gender boundaries shockingly beautiful.” 

Bowie and Yamamoto were true trailblazers. Yamamoto would dress Bowie in unique silhouettes, tights, kimonos and satin boots — both quite provocative and alluring to the unsuspecting western audience. This can also be seen in Bowie’s wigs and makeup during the era, according to Simeran Maxwell’s “Performing fashion/fashioning performance: Kansai Yamamoto, David Bowie and Ziggy Stardust.”

Yamamoto was responsible for some of Bowie’s most iconic and revolutionary looks, a prime example being Bowie’s Tokyo Pop jumpsuit. Long sleeved and high collared with extremely dramatic, wide and rounded legs, the jumpsuit uses its black background and symmetrical white stitching to make a statement. Constructed from synthetic rubber, the jumpsuit is one which will absolutely have a long legacy.

Another famous jumpsuit from this era, known as the “Hands Jumpsuit,” features a brown knit material with gold glittery pants. The right leg is cropped into Bowie’s beloved mini shorts and sits under an inspiring criss cross pattern, while his right arm hosts a matching arm band. Over Bowie’s chest sit two golden hands with black nail polish, placed possessively over his chest.

Even more of Yamamoto’s Japanese influence can be seen in a piece of Bowie’s — white drapery, made of satin and wool, dragging on the floor and adorned with Japanese calligraphy. This is a wonderful example of the collaboration between these two artists.

“Both of us were very aggressive about new creations,” Yamamoto said in “Performing Glam Rock: Gender and Theatricality in Popular Music.” “David Bowie was Basra in a Western way, and I am the Japanese way.”

His invocation of the Japanese term “basara,” which means having a rebellious, flamboyant nature, demonstrates how they were not simply designer and client, but co-conspirators in the art and protest of glam rock.

Before artists used gender non-conformity as art and before museums borrowed from subcultures, Bowie and Yamamoto demonstrated how fashion and music could be exaggerated and made into narrative — and, of course, that the stage could be a site of radical self expression.

Bowie, through his own artistic ingenuity and integrity, still to this day has left an impact, inspiring millions — if not billions — of people around the world to use fashion and music as tools for artistic expression.

Ziggy Stardust has become the world’s muse, but first he was Bowie and Yamamoto’s eccentric creation, stitched together by a cross-cultural hunger for the theatrical. Though both Yamamoto and Bowie have passed, their legendary work will always continue to evolve and inspire.

SHOOT LEADS Summer Neds, Olivia Schweinhagen, ASST. SHOOT LEAD Eleanor Winemiller | PHOTOGRAPHERS Marin Zbawiony, Jupiter Justice, Shreya Jain | MODELS Mia Schwind, Lizzie Porter, Reegan Davis, Kallyn Buckenmyer, Siya Patil | HAIR & MAKEUP ARTIST Charlotte Conn | PAUL MITCHELL MAKEUP ARTISTS Hailee Harrington (IG: @illua.beauty), Jessica Guy (IG: @justjessstyling), Cayla Weston (IG: @missweston._)

SPECIAL THANKS to Flower Child and Used Kids Records