The hand-painted costume—which required nine hours in the makeup chair—features extraordinary details, like moving mechanical snakes placed atop Klum’s head. “I love that all of the snakes move independently—they look so real,” says Klum. “I also have a custom split snake tongue that is just next level. I love a challenge, so I am always striving to outdo myself from the years before.”
This was no last minute choice for Klum, who is known to plan her outlandish costumes years in advance. For her serpentine-chic look this evening, however, Klum did get a later start than usual. “But we still had few months to work on it,” she says. Around April, when the idea struck, Klum called up her close friend Mike Marino—the special effects artist who she works with every year—to make her vision a reality. “He immediately said, ‘Hell yeah!,’” says Klum. “He is a great collaborator, because he can not only bring the costume to life, but also comes up with ideas to make it even bigger and better.”
Photo: Max Montgomery
Of course, it was not just Klum and Marino who worked on the eerie design. It took more than 15 people and six months to create the end result. “Mike and his team are so respected in the industry—they have a bunch of Oscar nominations, and an Emmy award for The Penguin,” says Klum. Though they are a widely skilled group of artists, Klum says her favorite part of working with her dream team is their unbridled enthusiasm for the macabre: Every year, they are able to match her freak. “At their heart, they are just kids going wild with a box of crayons,” says Klum. “They bring so much creativity and artistry and wonder. I love working with them.”
