[1] As conveyed in the title song and album, Ziggy Stardust is an androgynous, alien rock star who came to Earth before an impending apocalyptic disaster to deliver a message of hope.

Influences for the character included English singer Vince Taylor, Texan musician the Legendary Stardust Cowboy, and Japanese kabuki theatre.

Bowie explained that the character of Ziggy Stardust was conceived as an alien rock star who arrives on an Earth that is dying due to a lack of natural resources.

Around the world older people have lost touch with reality, while children have adopted a hedonistic way of life and no longer want rock music, as there is no electricity to play it.

[5] According to author Michael Luckman, the song "Lady Stardust" presents Ziggy meeting his disciples, playing before a crowd of worshippers, followed by "Star", in which he "reveal[s] his plan for intergalactic superstardom".

[20][21] A girlfriend recalled his "scrawling notes on a cocktail napkin about a crazy rock star named Iggy or Ziggy", and on his return to England he declared his intention to create a character "who looks like he's landed from Mars".

Over a small series of shows which, while poorly received at the time, are now credited as the origin of glam rock,[29] the band performed in flamboyant costumes, each with an accompanying persona of a spoof superhero.

[29][30] Describing his costume as "very spacey", he later explained that his idea for the outfits was to counter the popular image of rock acts at the time, which was "all jeans and long hair".

[44] The dye contained 30 volume peroxide which gave Bowie's hair some lift, but Fussey then used an anti-dandruff treatment called Gard to help stiffen it and make it stand upright.

[40] On the cover of The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, Bowie appeared in a green suit of his own design, made by his tailor friend Freddie Burretti and seamstress Sue Frost.

Produced in a geometric-patterned fabric, representing an integrated circuit, the bomber jacket and matching cuffed trousers were worn with knee-high, lace-up boots designed by Stan Miller.

Similar outfits were made for Bowie's backing band The Spiders From Mars;[41] these costumes worn in early live performances were based on those sported by the Droogs in Stanley Kubrick's film A Clockwork Orange.

Bowie explained, "I wanted to take the hardness and violence of those Clockwork Orange outfits—the trousers tucked into big boots and the codpiece things—and soften them up by using the most ridiculous fabrics.

In addition to his green suit, Bowie's costumes for early concerts were white satin trousers with a flock-patterned jacket, and a multi-coloured jumpsuit that he also wore on Top of the Pops.

[50] Many of Yamamoto's stage wear designs for Bowie were "tear-away" outfits, influenced by hikinuki, the method of changing costumes quickly in kabuki theatre.

[52] On Ziggy's forehead was a gold "astral sphere" suggested by make-up artist Pierre La Roche (who also applied the lightning flash to Bowie's face for the cover of Aladdin Sane).

[42] When the Ziggy Stardust tour came to Japan in April 1973, Bowie met the kabuki theatre star Bando Tamasaburo, who taught him about traditional Japanese makeup techniques.

[50] In a 1973 Mirabelle magazine article, La Roche explained that Bowie bought most of his make-up from a shop in Rome but acquired his "white rice powder" from "Tokyo's Woolworth's equivalent".

"[54] By the time Bowie returned to Britain for the final leg of the Ziggy Stardust tour in May 1973 following the release of Aladdin Sane, he had become the biggest English rock star since the Beatles almost a decade earlier,[55] in terms of concert and record sales.

[59][2] Rolling Stone described Ziggy Stardust as "the ultimate rock star": "He's a wild, hedonistic figure ... but at his core communicates peace and love".

[63] The "Ziggy" cut marked an "era-defining grooming change" as it went against the typical fashion of natural, long haircuts for men at the time and was also suited to either sex.

[61][71] In 2012, a plaque was unveiled by the Crown Estate at the site at which the iconic Ziggy Stardust album cover photograph was taken by Brian Ward on Heddon Street, London.

[74][75] The statue stands in Aylesbury's Market Square,[75] which Bowie referenced in "Five Years", the opening song of The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders from Mars album.