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    • Heidi Klum’s costume designer tells us how ET was created
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    Heidi Klum’s costume designer tells us how ET was created

    Umito Posted on

    For Mike Marino, the visionary behind Heidi Klum’s Halloween 2024 costume, Halloween looks more like a “war” than a partyhe said in an interview with TODAY.com.

    “Basically, you’re preparing yourself for some sort of extreme challenge. It’s never easy,” he says from his apartment the day after the party. “But that’s what we do. I am one of the luckiest people in the world.

    The prosthetic designer and owner of Prosthetic Renaissance worked with Klum on some of the model’s newest larger-than-life costumes, which she wears for its annual Halloween parties.

    Marino and Klum collaborated about her transformation into an elderly version of herself in 2013; Jessica Rabbit in 2015; the wolf from the “Thriller” music video in 2017; Princess Fiona from “Shrek” in 2018 and more.

    Requiring a team of 30 artists and nine months of planning, this year’s costume – AND from Steven Spielberg’s 1982 film – might have been the most daunting yet.

    But Klum, he said, was up for the challenge. “It doesn’t deflate. She’s really going for it,” he says.

    Klum came up with the idea for an ET suit in 2023, Marino says, but they had to delay the project a year because of Marino’s schedule. He was busy transforming Colin Farrell into the Penguin for HBO’s “The Penguin.”

    “When I was 9 years old in Germany, ET introduced me to the idea that there was life outside of planet Earth. So last year we all put our heads together to figure out how to put my own stamp on such an iconic character,” she wrote on Instagram of his inspiration.

    Klum and her husband, Tokio Hotel guitarist Tom Kaulitz, were two different versions of the friendly alien. Klum’s costume was removed from the moment Gertie dresses the alien in women’s clothing; Kaulitz was the most classic ET

    Tom Kaulitz, Heidi Klum
    Tom Kaulitz, left, and Heidi Klum, right, in their costumes.Evan Agostini/AP

    The costume also had an animatronic element, so when Klum was interviewed on the red carpet, ET’s face appeared to speak. It was actually Marino listening to the interview and synchronizing the costume’s blinks, head movements, and mouth openings. has his interview from behind the scenes.

    “Everything was hard, I swear,” he says of the costume. “Every second is like a heart attack. I can’t sleep for months, thinking, “My God, did we do this thing right?” How is this thing going to fit? How are we going to balance the head?’

    Ah, the head: Of all the difficult parts, Marino says the “hardest part” was keeping ET’s head balanced on top of Klum and Kaulitz’s.

    The married couple’s real faces were in ET’s neck. Then the costume’s heads rested on top of theirs. Marino and his team faced some challenges. For one thing, in order to get the alien’s proportions right – a skinny neck and a big head – the head had to be “huge.” But it also had to be as light as possible.

    Heidi Klum
    Heidi Klum’s head sticks out from under ET’s. Klum’s face was covered in soft latex foam so she could be expressive.Evan Agostini/AP

    The team used lightweight carbon fiber to limit volume and weight to around 4 pounds (although Klum’s wig was another 4 pounds). To keep Klum and Kaulitz from tipping over, they embedded a piece of steel inside the carbon fiber, which attached to the straps on their backs.

    “So when the head is put in place and screwed in, it doesn’t fall out,” he says.

    However, it wasn’t really comfortable: “Carrying 4 kilos on your head for hours, it’s going to hurt.” »

    The entire process began in January with a full body scan of Klum and Kaulitz, which Marino’s team then 3D printed.

    Traditionally, Marino says he would have sculpted the costume out of clay – but not this time. He digitally sculpted the costume on a computer, “down to the smallest detail,” then 3D printed it. From there, they cast the molds of these 3D renderings in foam latex. Through this process, they were able to achieve “immense detail” that is not normally possible through 3D printing.

    Tom Kaulitz, Heidi Klum and Leni Olumi Klum
    Kaulitz and Klum standing next to Klum’s daughter Leni. A platform on the red carpet made ET look smaller than everyone else, even though Klum and Kaulitz were standing tall.Evan Agostini/AP

    The molds were fitted to a spandex suit with straps and harnesses. Klum and Kaulitz’s faces were constructed using a softer foam allowing for facial expressions.

    “There are so many puzzle pieces put together, and then everything is airbrushed by expert painters who airbrush every line, every detail and every vein,” he says.

    The day before Halloween, the team began a fitting, going over checklists and making sure the costume was painted correctly.

    “The crazy thing is, if I didn’t do it that day, Halloween would still be five hours long,” he says.

    Halloween day started around 11:30 a.m. and by 9:30 p.m., Klum and Kaulitz arrived at the party at the Hard Rock Hotel in New York.

    On the red carpet, Marino designed another visual effect to make ET appear smaller than everyone else. without Klum and Kaulitz must kneel. ET’s feet were tied to his knees. They created a platform where everyone looked big, but Klum looked small.

    “She was delighted. She walked on stage as ET. She was screaming with joy, but we had to take her off pretty quickly. They were sweating profusely. Their heads were falling off,” he says.

    After the show, Klum and Kaulitz spend 30 minutes each unzipping most of the costume – and in doing so, they save months of work.

    Marino is now waiting for a text from Klum with the idea for next year.

    “Luckily I’m the only one not in costume at the party because I’m so tired and exhausted and I worry about Heidi all the time. Halloween, I love the makeup and the characters, but I’m glad I’m not participating in it,” he says.

    Umito
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