하이디 클룸 할로윈 코스튬 Heidi Klum Worm

The Monster Effects Artists Behind Heidi Klum’s Halloween Costume

The cat's been out of the bag, or in this case, the worm has turned.

 

I was hired by Mike Marino of Prosthetic Renaissance to design Heidi Klum's worm costume which debuted last night on Halloween.

 

This was the final drawing I did which shows how her face would be merged with the suit, but before a direction was decided upon, things went in some pretty interesting directions which I'll post soon!

These were the very first drawings I did of the Heidi Klum worm suit. We were just trying to nail down a direction so I was just playing around. I was still thinking 'stylish and sexy', so some of these look like inflatable fetish fashions.

I was sent a video of Heidi Klum wearing a mermaids tail, hopping and then wriggling on the floor in a demonstration of how she wanted to perform in the worm suit. I took some screen shots, and did these drawings of what she could look like as the worm, one with free arms and one with them merged with her body.

Still in the alien spacesuit fetish realm here, with a bit of Pris from Bladerunner in the mix. 

 

Mike Marino suggested that some translucent membranes on the segments around her face might be an effective way of showing her beneath the prosthetics, so I did some designs with that in mind.

Some worm mouth sphincter detail for this version of the costume's head, still in fleshy spacesuit territory. 

 

Mike had sent me a tasty closeup photo of a worm orifice that I wanted to incorporate somewhere.

And this is as far out as things got before we went Full Worm. I had just seen the Alexander McQueen show at LACMA and was inspired to do a high fashion worm queen design. Definitely more of a sea worm than a garden variety nightcrawler. It's probably the most 'me' out of all of the variations, and I figured it might be a bit much, but I felt compelled to go there. 

 

After this, things began to take shape.

And we have arrived .... Full Worm! 

It wasn't yet decided whether she would have her arms free as flippers, or would have them bound like in the final suit. In this drawing there is no indication of how she would be able to see, or how her face would emerge, if at all. 

 

But wait, there's more!

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Her idea to dress like a worm on a fishing line held by her husband, Tom Kaulitz, 33, wasn’t well-received by Marino at first, who “didn’t think it was possible.”

“This costume idea was so big and it had to happen in [real time and in] real life, no cuts for take two,” the special effects pro said. “I wasn’t confident about pulling it off.”

 

After being convinced by Klum they could — in the words of her “Project Runway” co-star Tim Gunn — “make it work,” Marino and his team set out to create a human-sized worm over a period of four months, taking scans of the model’s face and body and creating a foam worm prototype.

“Once the suit was built, we zipped Heidi in and hid the zipper, then I glued on the facial appliances and painted,” the costume veteran said.

 

Her transformation into an invertebrate took a good 12 hours, according to Klum, who shared, “We started at 11 a.m. and I probably made it to the carpet around 11 p.m..”

 

While she arrived fashionably late for the party, which was held at Sake No Hana in the Lower East Side’s Moxy Hotel, the Halloween queen definitely turned heads in her worm suit, which she called “so claustrophobic.”

“It is one thing to add prosthetics to your body — but to be stuck inside the worm body and not really be able to use my arms or feet was not very comfortable,” the “America’s Got Talent” judge admitted. “But Halloween is not about comfort.” 

 

“For me, Halloween is all about transforming and being creative,” she continued, adding that she was pleased “that people are appreciating the creativity and effort to create this as well as all the other costumes I did in the past.”

 

After this truly out-there Halloween transformation, we’re wiggling to see what Klum wears next year — and as she revealed last week, the planning process has already started.

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Heidi Klum is the queen of Halloween. Her brilliantly bizarre costumes have become the stuff of legends, and the unveiling of her yearly monster masterpiece is something of a pop culture tradition. The actress, model, and TV host works with the very best in the SFX industry and subjects herself to hours of fittings, body castings, prosthetics, and makeup to bring her Halloween dreams to fruition. From apes and aliens to werewolves and robots, she has slayed every red carpet and seasonal soiree for over a decade — and 2022 was no exception.

 

This year, in a surprise reveal, Heidi slithered onto the red carpet for her annual Halloween bash as … a gigantic worm!

 

“Squeams & Screams”

Heidi’s longtime friend and collaborator Mike Marino and his team at Prosthetic Renaissance Inc. had the daunting challenge of turning the superstar into a queen-sized invertebrate in time for the festivities. Mike assembled a dream-team of industry legends, designers, technicians, sculptors, painters, model makers, and more — all of whom worked tirelessly for months to make Heidi’s “squeams and screams” vision a reality.

 

Mike’s artistic army included (among others) William “Bill” Bryan, Jerry Constantine, Noah Rivers, Brie Ford, Alison Kellerman, Kevin Carter, Mike Fontaine, Trent Taft, Paul Komoda, and Sideshow’s own Casey Love.

 

As well as being a part of Sideshow’s creative team and paint department, Casey is also a special effects industry veteran and world-renowned mask maker. Over the course of his career, Casey has worked for industry giants such as studioADI, Tatopoulos Studios, Steve Wang, The Character Shop, KNB EFX Group, Rick Baker’s Cinovation Studios, and Guillermo del Toro.

 

When he’s not painting collectibles for Sideshow, Casey works on select private commissions, including this exciting and challenging painting project for Mike and his team.

 

Behind the Scenes Photos

Sideshow Photographer Cassie Fuertez captured the behind-the-scenes action from Casey’s busy studio, giving us an in-depth glimpse into the creative process that helped to bring this “monsterpiece” to life:

Casey Love using an airbrush to detail the worm costume.

Casey Love standing with part of the worm costume in progress.

Details of the worm suit colors and textures.

Extreme close-up of the painted costume.

Additional suit details.

Additional suit details.

Worm costume in progress, supported by a wooden beam.

Extreme close-up on suit colors and textures.

Additional suit details.

Black and white portrait of Casey Love airbrushing additional details onto the costume.