Things I Did Not Expect to Find Out...
...from musicologist Katherine M. Reed's book Velvet Goldmine:
Todd Haynes's brother Shawn developed a cosmetic line inspired by the movie, which may have been used for that iconic photo shoot with Christian Bale (the last part is my speculation).
Reed uses the fanfic Re-Make/Re-Model on AO3 as an example of musical punctum--in this instance through the use of Lou Reed's "Satellite of Love" in the movie--from Roland Barthe's theory on how people experience "the viscerality of memory" through art.
Craig Wedren, one of the musicians of Shudder to Think, went on to score music for Yellowjackets. He and Nathan Larson were inspired by T. Rex's Electric Warrior and Bowie's Diamond Dogs in particular when they were writing "Hot One" and "Ballad of Maxwell Demon."
Sandy Powell, inspired by Bowie, worked with Lindsay Kemp early in her costuming career, then with Derek Jarman, before beginning work on Velvet Goldmine. She was able to accomplish what she did on a minimal budget thanks to her connection with Angels, a costume house in London that allowed her to rent rather than buy elements of her costumes, as long as they remained owners of the final product.
Peter King, who did hair and makeup, has a brief cameo in the scene at the Sombrero when Cecil first sees Brian perform, as one of the clubgoers commenting in Polari. His experience growing up was very similar to Arthur's, in that he had to hide his glam looks from his parents under a drab coat when sneaking out to concerts and the like as a teenager. He also cites Bowie and glam as primary influences in his choice to enter his award-winning career.
Creem magazine once hosted a fan contest for Bowie lookalikes, in which the winner would get to take home a piece of Bowie's clothing from one of his stage performances. The contest was cheekily named "Get Into David's Pants."
One of the methods Haynes used to prep for the film and to better embody his characters for the screenplay was to shop at charity shops in London for vintage glam clothing and to wear it while styling his hair like Ziggy.
The fanfiction output for Velvet Goldmine used to be in the thousands, before LiveJournal and Fanfiction.net did a purge of explicit material. Some independent sites from the late 1990s and early 2000s still remain available via the Wayback Machine though.
By the time I reached the final chapter, I was tempted to quote from every page, which is not fair to the author. The main takeaway I got from it was that fandom and fanfiction are a growing field of study within academic circles, and Todd Haynes seems to be a patron saint of creating media specifically meant for fan involvement (at least to me he is). Essays on the concept of "reparative reading" by Alice Kelly and Eve Sedgwick are on my list for further reading, along with Chad Bennett's essay "Flaming the Fans: Shame and the Aesthetics of Queer Fandom in Todd Haynes's Velvet Goldmine."
In the author's words, "Velvet Goldmine is different today, because of us." Hear hear to that, and here's looking at us, kids!
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