Heidi Klum knows how to work a runway … and a Halloween party.
The former model somehow looks phenomenal in every single one of her iconic Halloween costumes. (And yes, we’re including that time she dressed up as a giant worm.)
She also isn’t scared of excess. After all, she hangs spooky spiderwebs inside her house as well as outside, and she throws a massive Halloween party each year. But she does have one major Halloween-related fear.
“I don’t want to die in one of my costumes,” she tells TODAY.com, half-joking about her the costumes she’s worn that almost completely cover her skin, which is her “biggest organ.”
Halloween isn’t necessarily a physically enjoyable time for Klum. “Most of the time I can’t hear a thing,” she says about being in costume. “Or when I was a worm, I had no arms. I couldn’t hold anything.”
But she’s in it for the art.
What will she dress up as this year? It’s a huge secret, but she did give us a hint.
“It will be outerworldly,” she says mysteriously, “and there will be a lot of prosthetics again. I’m claustrophobic just thinking about it.”
How Klum’s Halloween parties got their start
Klum threw her first Halloween party back in 2000. She explains, “I’m in New York City, the coolest city on the planet, and I have no idea where to go, what party is happening. And then you go to a party and no one is dressing up because everyone is too cool for school.
“I was like, this has to be changed. And if I’m the host of this party, I have to come up with some outrageous costumes and make it mandatory that people are dressed or they can’t get into the party.”
Previously, people would “put on a red nose and call it a day,” she says. Now guests are buying into the spirit “and people really enjoy thinking of a fun outfit. I feel like I gave them the opportunity to go for it, and I think people love it because they love playing a different part and also just showcasing creativity.”
One newer attendee is Klum’s daughter, Leni. In 2022, Leni made her Halloween party debut as Catwoman, and she returned in 2023 as an all-grown-up Strawberry Shortcake.
Fantasy fashion
As the unofficial queen of Halloween, Klum is all about dressing up. And now she’s helping kids all over the world get in on the fun.
Klum noticed that when the youngest of her four children (Leni, 20, Henry, 19, Johan, 17, and Lou, 14) was playing Roblox, she only had “one particular body type” to use as an avatar. Klum was disappointed that all different types of bodies weren’t represented. Plus, she notes, “This is fantasy. It’s not necessarily resembling a human,” so if you want to be a hot dog or a marshmallow or a triangle, you should be able to be those things.
She teamed up with Supersocial to launch Modelverse, a Roblox fashion experience that allows players to model unique looks on runways across the world. They can celebrate Oktoberfest in Germany, a Met Ball-inspired gala in New York and Carnival in Rio, among others. They can create unique avatars and outfits along the way, of course.
Creating the game was a family affair.
Together with her kids, Klum interviewed four different game developers. “It was really cute, because they were sitting there asking questions and telling the vision, and then we made up our mind who we wanted to go with,” she says.
While Klum was concerned with making the game esthetically pleasing, Lou spoke to the mechanics of gameplay. “She was very good at giving input,” Klum says.
Within the game, you can find recreations of some of Klum’s “favorite looks,” like Bjork’s swan dress and Celine Dion’s backless white suit. “You will see a lot of my Halloween outfits,” Klum adds, “like my worm or peacock, or when I was Lady Godiva. We made the longest wig that is dragging off the floor!”
“Making something out of something”
In 2021, Klum told People that she didn’t pass on “that Halloween bug” to her kids. “Out of four, there’s only one that really is going for it and that’s Lou,” she said at the time.
Klum says her kids still aren’t as into dressing up as she is. “I will buy them whatever they would want to have,” she says, noting that they will usually select something like a self-inflating dinosaur costume.
Store-bought costumes “look so cute, but for me, it’s too easy. I guess I’m always drawn to things that are hard, that you can’t necessarily just pick up everywhere,” she says.
Klum prefers “making something out of something.” She seems to hearken back to her “Project Runway” roots, searching for costume materials and finding a way to “make it work.”
