Celebrities
and
Halloween
Written by Tongtong Ye '27
It’s October of 2022. A bulbous mound of coiled flesh mysteriously winds up on the red carpet. Everybody stops in their tracks. All of a sudden, the creature opens its mouth, greeting us with a cheery “Hi guys!” in a German accent that could only be Heidi Klum. Every year, the “Queen of Halloween” never fails to steal the show. With nothing exposed but her eyes and mouth, Klum continuously goes above and beyond with her prosthetics and makeup. In 2022, she transformed her entire body into a gigantic repulsive worm. Her costume instantly went viral as pictures resurfaced across the Internet, haunting the screens of millions describing the scene as “galvanizing” and almost “horrific.” In an interview, Klum explained to Vogue: “Because it is Halloween, you need the creepy factor — also a bit gross and disgusting.” And if creepy was what she was going for, we can say without a doubt that she did her job.
Halloween is a celebrity’s oyster, and living an extravagant lifestyle comes with the responsbility of flaunting an extravagant costume. Every year, our favorite Hollywood stars stretch the boundaries of what it means to play dress-up. Going back to the 90s, supermodel Cindy Crawford stunned audiences when she appeared on The Tonight Show dressed as Marilyn Monroe. Her outfit featured Marilyn’s signature red lip, a blonde bob, and a long white maxi dress ornamented with silver jewels reminiscent of the “Happy Birthday” dress. Marilyn’s legacy endures through the many celebrities recreate her iconic looks. Particularly in 2010’s television, we saw Blake Lively embodying Marilyn through an elegant pink evening gown in Gossip Girl and Ashley Benson donning the notable white dress from The Seven Year Itch in her role as Hanna Marin on the Pretty Little Liars Halloween episode. It turns out that even celebrities aren’t immune from dressing as other celebrities when it comes to Halloween.
Some celebrities vie for the route of recreating film characters and do so with stellar accuracy. Emily Ratajkowski arrived at Heidi Klum’s 2015 Halloween Bash painted head-to-toe in yellow wearing a neon green strapless dress and a red beaded necklace. The icing on the cake? The bright blue beehive of towering hair that could only be an homage to Marge Simpson. In one of her most famous costumes, Heidi Klum completely transformed herself into Princess Fiona from Shrek, covered in prosthetic make-up on the face, chest, hands, and feet. Her costume came to life with the help of special effects makeup designer, Mike Marino, a longtime partner of Klum since 2011. We can’t help but be astounded at the attention to detail from capturing Fiona’s little ogress ears to her dark green velvet gown to her chunky green hands and feet. The look was further elevated with sparkly green eyeshadow, nude lip gloss, and bright blue contacts. She even teased her transformation on social media showing off her hourly long makeup routine and the 2 pounds of hair fitted on her head. To Klum, Halloween is all about feeling good in what you're wearing. It’s a time of raw experimentation and innovation.
