Heidi Klum Transforms into Medusa for Annual Halloween Party
Model and TV host Heidi Klum donned an elaborate Medusa costume, featuring animatronic snakes and a snake suit, at her annual Halloween event in New York City.
At her annual Halloween party in New York City, model and television host Heidi Klum unveiled an elaborate Medusa costume, complete with animatronic snakes and a snake suit. Klum's husband, musician Tom Kaulitz, complemented her look by dressing as a warrior turned to stone.
Klum's costume featured more than a dozen animatronic snakes that appeared to slither from her head, and her eyes glowed with reptilian contact lenses. She wore a snake suit with a nearly 8-foot tail, which housed a battery pack for the moving snakes and a set of wheels to facilitate movement. The costume's size made it challenging for Klum to sit and occupied much of the blue carpet outside the Hard Rock Hotel in midtown Manhattan.
Hollywood prosthetics designer Mike Marino, a longtime collaborator of Klum's, stated that the costume was inspired by the snakelike, stop-motion Medusa from the 1981 movie "Clash of the Titans," designed by animator Ray Harryhausen. Marino noted that the costume required several dozen people to assemble, with a scaled mask and gloves covering Klum's face, neck, and hands, and any exposed skin painted green. A five-inch, split reptile tongue was attached to her real tongue using a suction cup device, requiring Klum to keep her tongue as dry as possible for it to function properly.
Klum's elaborate Halloween costumes have become a hallmark of her annual parties, which have been a fixture in New York City for over 25 years. In previous years, she has dressed as a worm, a peacock, a werewolf, an ogress, and E.T., among other characters. Klum mentioned that her team conceived the Medusa idea about four months prior to the event, which she considered relatively late in her planning process. She emphasized that her focus was on creating a "really cool, scary, snake-woman" costume.