Heidi Klum couldn't find a cool Halloween party — so she created her own

NEW YORK — Heidi Klum has been hosting the buzziest Halloween party for over two decades. But while she may now be the indisputable "Queen of Halloween," it wasn't always that way.

The idea for the bash was born out of a lack of other viable hot spots, she says. She recalls running around New York years earlier with a friend thinking, "I can't believe this, this is Manhattan … no one is doing like a really cool party?"

So she created her own — and leaned heavily into the costumes.

"People want to be cool," she says, "but I feel like the cool factor then goes and everyone has more fun when you're dressed up. It's a great shield to have."

Heidi Klum's 2024 Halloween: See her costume, inside her celeb-studded party

Klum has led by example, completely transforming herself over the years with prosthetics, special effects makeup and, two years ago, an elaborate worm costume that quickly went viral.

In honor of spooky season, Klum lit up the New York skyline this week. The supermodel and "America's Got Talent" judge kicked off preparations for her annual Halloween bash on Tuesday with a symbolic lighting of the Empire State Building.

The NYC landmark will be illuminated mostly orange with a dusting of green to mimic a pumpkin.

After pulling the giant lever to "light" the building and posing for cameras in a brilliantly colored orange getup, complete with Dorothy-style ruby slippers, Klum sat down with USA TODAY to talk all things Halloween and preview her legendary party.

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Heidi Klum looks back on favorite costumes

While some early getups were less elaborate, Klum still looks back on those costumes fondly.

"I was more involved in a way, hooking it up myself," she says, recalling running to a medical supply store to get a skeleton to disassemble for one of her first disguises.

In 2011, she went full monkey for a "Planet of the Apes" inspired costume that she cites as a favorite. However, it was difficult to go to the bathroom in, she says, and there was a slight panic at the end of the night when she couldn't find the makeup artists to remove the prosthetics.

"I learned so many things along the way," Klum jokes.

She's also proud of the year she arrived as a 90-year-old.

"It was when I turned 40 and people were like well you're 40 when are you stopping modeling because you should hang up your wings and everything else," Klum says. "But I was like 'Old? I'll show you old.'" To complete the look she wore contacts that dimmed her eyes to show aging.

Then there was the multi-person Peacock costume, and the year she danced to "Thriller" down the street as the werewolf from the music video. "I do love all of them, even my very first one," Klum says.

Heidi Klum crawls into her Halloween party as a fishing worm, gets hugs from daughter Leni

Heidi Klum's no-last-minute costume rule

She chooses her costume a year in advance and does not change her mind, even sometimes despite protestations from her team. Several people were against the worm costume, for example, but she stuck by it.

"I pretty much start the next day (after Halloween the year prior) … I wrack my brain," she says of her costume planning, "Why do people figure it out two days before? It's hard."

Klum always opts for a big costume reveal at the party and her lips are sealed about this year's getup, though she does say it will be time-intensive.

"It'll take a hot minute," she says. Klum plans to start prepping around 11 a.m. and hopes to be ready by 9 p.m. for the carpet.

Leni Klum joins mom Heidi in the modeling world

Her oldest daughter Leni Klum will also be in attendance at the party this year, fresh off the heels of a new mother-daughter lingerie campaign.

"She's been watching me her whole life, all my kids have," Klum says of her daughter entering the modeling industry, "They've seen firsthand how it is and they are not afraid of the cameras."

Heidi Klum and daughter Leni model lingerie in new campaign photoshoot

The one important piece of advice she gave her daughter was that she's allowed to say no. Once you commit to a job, it's important to see it through, Klum says, but she wants her daughter to know: "At the core, if there's something you don't want to do, you should be able to say no."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Halloween: Heidi Klum talks 2024 party, costume mishaps