According to Empire, in David Bowie’s mind, the Goblin King was a romantic at best, but at worst, “a spoilt child, vain and temperamental — kind of like a rock star!” — also kind of like Sarah herself. Brian Froud explained to the outlet that Sarah is on the verge of a sexual awakening, and because she crushes on rock stars, of course, she created this character in the image of one. Froud discussed the motivations behind Jareth’s costume, saying:

“We’re not looking at reality, we’re inside this girl’s head. There are references to all sorts of things in his costume. There’s the danger of a leather boy in his leather jacket, which also has a reference to the armor of a certain type of German knight in it; there are references to Heathcliff from ‘Wuthering Heights’; and the tight trousers are a reference to ballet dancers. He’s an amalgam of the inner fantasies of this girl. Everyone always talks about Bowie’s perv pants, but there was a reason for it all! It has a surface that’s fairly light, but then every so often you go, ‘Oh, my God! How did we get away with that?!'”

But they didn’t totally get away with it. Apparently, the studio struggled with the size of Jareth’s package, which is why it’s at its largest in the first scene that was shot (when Sarah and Hoggle are confronted by the Goblin King in the tunnel). Jim Henson’s son Brian (who also worked on the film) said after the studio saw the footage, “The calls came back very quickly, ‘you’re absolutely nuts if you think David Bowie’s going to keep wearing that thing.'” His father was not a fan of reshoots, so after that, Henson recalled, the codpiece just grew smaller and smaller.