Heidi Klum unfold her wings this Halloween. Well, technically, a number of Cirque du Soleil acrobats unfold them for her.
Ms. Klum, a type and previous host of “Project Runway,” is legendary for her annual Halloween bash in New York City, the place she arrives in an elaborate dress.
In 2013, she used to be a dramatically aged-up model of herself, whole with white hair and liver spots. (That 12 months she went to the birthday party immediately from a clinic, after a specifically nasty bout of meals poisoning, however she used to be now not about to stick house on Halloween.) In 2018, she dressed as Princess Fiona, the ogress from “Shrek.”
Last 12 months’s ensemble, a prosthetic worm suit, gave the look of one thing from a drug-induced nightmare.
“I was like, ‘How the heck do I top this rain worm?’” Ms. Klum, 50, stated throughout a get dressed practice session the day sooner than the large expose.
The resolution, she made up our minds, used to be to level a efficiency with the assistance of 10 Cirque du Soleil performers to become herself into a large human peacock.
Dressed in pretend feathers at the carpet out of doors the birthday party held on the nightclub Marquee in Chelsea, Ms. Klum and the performers assembled into a human pyramid. The acrobats twisted and contorted and flew in the course of the air in a enchanting show, concealing Ms. Klum who waited at the floor. Legs and fingers went as much as expose large wings, and Ms. Klum crawled via a set of legs and stood on the middle atop the thighs of one among her flock pals. A prosthetic beak on her face introduced all of the dress in combination.
Her peacock headpiece, designed by way of her longtime collaborator, the make-up artist Bill Corso, is artfully detailed, however general this 12 months’s dress is much less reliant on prosthetics than previous seems.
Ms. Klum stated she had transform accustomed to Cirque du Soleil via her paintings website hosting “Germany’s Next Top Model” and reached out throughout the summer time to start out the venture. She picked a peacock as a result of she concept the dynamic method the birds are recognized to blow their own horns their feathers would lend itself smartly to the efficiency.
Ms. Klum wore a stretchy velour unitard in a color of vivid cobalt speckled with refined glints to simulate the neck and head of the chicken. “It’s very comfortable!” she stated sooner than the birthday party.
Her arms had been painted in blues and vegetables and embellished to hide any hint of human pores and skin. She wore footwear that gave the look of ballet slippers, which mixed into the dress of the person whose thighs she stood on. The footwear had been a little too tight, she stated, however “you need a good grip” — one thing she had realized from the circus contributors.
Each of the performers surrounding Ms. Klum additionally wore unitards in various sunglasses and patterns of feathery vegetables and blues. The customized patterns had been designed and revealed by way of Cirque du Soleil’s in-house workforce, stated the dress dressmaker Marie Chantale Vaillancourt. The workforce implemented particular person Swarovski crystals to every go well with.
“I’m really into the bedazzling,” Ms. Klum stated. No actual feathers had been used within the costumes.
The function used to be to recreate the customized trend of the unitards at the hair and faces of the acrobats. This concerned myriad merchandise together with foil, glints and airbrushed paint, which took about two hours to use on every performer, stated Vanessa Ashley, Cirque du Soleil’s make-up artist.
“We’re trying to make the artists invisible as much as possible,” Ms. Ashley stated in an interview sooner than the development. The thought used to be to become the gang into a seamless chicken tableau.
Ms. Klum’s transformation began round midday on Halloween, as Mr. Corso implemented glue, steel paint, rhinestones, feathery faux eyelashes and different merchandise to Ms. Klum till she used to be all however unrecognizable.
Ms. Klum joked, with the intention to kiss her husband, Tom Kaulitz, a German musician, she’d need to peck him.