On Saturday, Heidi Klum, the model and T.V. personality, transformed into a gory, 8-foot version of her own severed left hand for her annual Halloween party.
She was not, to be clear, Klum with her hand chopped off. She was the chopped-off hand.
And like the disembodied hand, known as Thing, in the “Addams Family” franchise, Klum-as-hand scurried onto the red carpet at the Cathédrale restaurant inside the Moxy Hotel in Manhattan’s East Village.
“I don’t know how it sometimes happens,” Klum said, when trying to explain why she had decided to dress as her hand, or even her left hand instead of her right hand. “Sometimes the most random things that you see every day, all the time, can be the most interesting thing, if you twist it a little bit.”
The idea for the costume actually struck Klum last year, while Mike Marino, a Hollywood makeup artist and her longtime costume designer, was transforming her into Medusa.
“I remember sitting in the chair, and I said to Mike, ‘Do you want to know already my idea for next year?’ And he’s like, ‘Please, no, I’m focusing on getting Medusa squared away, I can’t handle this right now,’” she said.
So instead, she texted him the idea the next day. Marino’s team scanned Klum’s hand and used it as a reference, recreating every vein, crevice and joint.
This year is the 25th anniversary of Klum’s Halloween party, which has become a fixture of New York City’s spooky season. Each year, she has tried to outdo herself with increasingly elaborate costumes.
In addition to Medusa, the Greek mythological monster whose gaze turns her victims to stone, Klum has dressed up as the alien E.T., a worm, a peacock and an ogress. She has also arrived as herself twice, once as a clone and another year as an older version of herself.
Until now, though, she hadn’t dressed up as any of her limbs.
Each one of her looks has turned Halloween costumery into a kind of high art; they take months to design and then require Klum to sit for hours for the transformation. She will often go the entire night without eating, drinking or using the restroom in service of the look.
“I’m putting in as much or more effort into this than the movies,” said Marino, who has worked on the “Batman” films and the HBO spinoff series “The Penguin.”
The end result, he added, is often “avant-garde, surrealistic” pieces of art.
In the days before the 25th annual Heidi-ween bash, Klum and Marino opened their costume archive and shared tidbits about previous years’ transformations. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.
Which costume was the hardest to create?
KLUM The 2019 alien. I did not have one part of my body that didn’t have a prosthetic piece glued on: my thighs, my chest, my stomach, my arm, the helmet. It was so many little details. I was sitting in the window from 8 in the morning until 11 o’clock at night. [Klum’s transformation took place inside an Amazon store, and passers-by could peek in through a window.]
MARINO Yeah, I think the alien takes it because she’s essentially naked.
Which one was easiest?
KLUM When I was a clone in 2016.
MARINO It wasn’t easy for me.
KLUM A lot of people don’t give the clones credit — that was hard to do. First of all, to find so many girls that have exactly my body shape, and then girls that would want to do this —
MARINO And who fit inside Heidi’s head.
KLUM The butterfly in 2014 was also easier compared to the others. But within the bug eyes, I had these batteries, and they were bugging me because they were literally so close to my eyeballs that I could hardly see anything.
MARINO But you also had the “Thriller” one in 2017 which was pretty easy, with just your chest and your hands.
KLUM No, that was a lot. It looked so perfect that people don’t get how many little pieces you glued on, painted on, and then the hair and everything. It looks like someone just took the head and popped it on top of my head, but it was my face.
MARINO The original on Michael Jackson was done by Rick Baker, the greatest ever in my industry. Afterward, Rick sent me a message and said, “I hate you.” He goes, “You made it better than mine.”
Which costume was the weirdest?
KLUM The worm in 2022. Because it was not just about painting the worm and building the worm, but it needed to be lubed to make it look like a rain worm. They look slimy, those worms. So I had like five people lubing me down.
Which ones were your favorites?
KLUM The worm. Just the simplicity of it, the weirdness.
MARINO I’m going to go with this year’s.
Additional reporting contributed bySarah Bahr
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