Heidi Klum is dressed as an adult this Halloween.
According to the model and former “Project Runway” host, it’s her first time.
This year, Ms. Klum, who has gained notoriety for her extravagant Halloween costumes, dressed up as E.T. for her yearly celebration at the Hard Rock Hotel in New York City.
Inspired by the extraterrestrial from Steven Spielberg’s 1982 film “E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial,” the outfit featured a motorized headpiece with moving eyes and mouth and a light fingertip that could be operated remotely by one of Ms. Klum’s team members. Additionally, the red carpet was constructed several feet above the ground, so Ms. Klum’s brown, knobby, unearthly toes seemed to be on the ground when she stood behind it.
Ms. Klum explained that the outfit is challenging to put on and take off, adding, “Maybe I never need to use the diaper, but at least that way I don’t have to think about it.”
Ms. Klum explained that “E.T.” was one of her favorite childhood films and that she got the inspiration for the costume a few weeks after last year’s event. (Incidentally, this year’s E.T. costume was also worn by Janelle Monáe, another famous person who enjoys Halloween.)
Ms. Klum remarked of the aliens in Mr. Spielberg’s film, “They have no genitals.” “I like the idea that we are all the same.”
On Wednesday afternoon, a final fitting for Ms. Klum took place in a suite at the Hard Rock Hotel in Midtown. The room, which was filled with tables painted in different colors, false eyelashes, and padding for Ms. Klum’s tummy, was surrounded by bright stage lights. Through a speaker, the song “The Purple People Eater” was played.
A woman with a rainbow mohawk carried a flap of artificial skin that would be placed to Ms. Klum’s face as a team flitted around her, preparing parts of her outfit. It was unexpectedly smooth and silky despite being sculpted and textured to appear rough and wrinkled.
The group carefully examined the movie as a guide. Bottles of K-Y jelly and baby powder used for the costumes were on display next to printed stills from the film.
As preparations went on, a number of individuals, including Mike Marino, the costume designer, worked to glue Ms. Klum’s robotic headgear into place and use blow dryers to speed up the drying process.
As she laughed, Ms. Klum remarked, “This is very high-tech.”
The wig and top hat that completed Ms. Klum’s outfit were on a stand nearby. Ms. Klum put strands of the wig into her lips and nose when asked what it was composed of.
Tom Kaulitz, a German musician and Ms. Klum’s husband, also dressed as E.T. for the occasion. According to Mr. Marino, 3-D printing was used to design the outfits. From the top of the head to the middle of the spine, there is a zippered seam.
In order to create a flawless appearance, the team used adhesive, airbrush cosmetics, and additional artificial skin pieces to cover the entire outfit after Ms. Klum slithered inside.
Over the years, Ms. Klum and Mr. Marino have worked together on many of her well-known costumes. Perhaps the most notable of them was in 2022, when Ms. Klum donned an enormous, hyper-realistic worm that was the subject of internet nightmares. The werewolf from Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” music video in 2017; an ape in 2011; an aged-up version of herself in 2013; a dazzling purple and red robot in 2010; and Princess Fiona, the ogre from Shrek, in 2018.
A group of ten Cirque du Soleil artists performed an acrobatic act on the red carpet last year, raising Ms. Klum into the air to create the bird’s face as part of her glamorous peacock outfit.
