At German model Heidi Klum’s Oktoberfest, free-flowing beer and lederhosen

MUNICH – A who’s who of models, German celebrities, fashionistas, influencers and many others dutifully put on lederhosen, dirndls and wool socks on the night of Sept 18 for a collective reason: Because German-American model Heidi Klum had invited them to.

“I would never do that,” said German designer Kilian Kerner, about wearing the traditional German garb that, for men, includes short leather pants, wool socks and a vest. “Only for Heidi.”

That was the feeling among many of the roughly 800 guests at the Hofbrauhaus Munchen, one of this city’s oldest breweries, as Klum hosted her first Heidi Fest. (A name that rolls off the tongue so naturally, you may think you’ve been saying it for years.)

The festivities were her interpretation of the longstanding German tradition of drinking large quantities of beer, getting together and singing sentimental German songs.

Oktoberfest began on Sept 20 and continues till Oct 5, held in large beer tents across Munich and all over Germany. The night on Sept 18 had the traditional elements of the annual event as well as – in true Heidi fashion – a little more.

Servers in traditional outfits walked around with large platters of pretzels, while others carried as many beer steins as two human hands could hold.

The dinner menu included heavy German fare such as schnitzel and sausages that came with sides of spaetzle and mashed potatoes doused in gravy. Scattered among the plates were pride flags and napkins with an illustration of a smiling Klum in a dirndl, which consists of a tight bodice, a skirt that reaches below the knees and an apron.

Klum, 52, had several reasons for hosting an Oktoberfest party. Partly, she said, she wanted to show her American friends that Germans knew how to party.

“We can get wild,” she said. “So I thought: We have to show people.”

Besides a night of unabashed fun, Heidi Fest also celebrated the culture Klum grew up on. She used to watch German music programmes with her grandmother as a child, she said.

“A lot of these entertainers I watched when I was seven, eight years old, they were here today,” Klum said. “It was special for me. Like a little homage to my granny.”

Scheduled less than two months before her annual Halloween bash in New York, Heidi Fest also meant that Klum had now put her mark on the autumnal party schedule on both sides of the Atlantic.

On Sept 18, she curated a line-up of singers who delivered crowd-pleasing bangers. Most of the songs were German and many of the people inside belted out every single lyric.

The performances also included American musical duo The Weather Girls singing It’s Raining Men (1982), German singer Lou Bega giving his all to the ever-catchy Mambo No. 5 (1999), a drag performance to I Will Survive (1978) and Trinidadian-German singer Haddaway singing his 1993 hit What Is Love.

A quick break for some history: Oktoberfest began as a folk festival to celebrate a royal wedding in October 1810, according to the Oktoberfest website.

A year later, people wanted a repeat of those celebrations, essentially starting the tradition we know as Oktoberfest. It kicks off in mid-September, because the weather in Germany is generally still mild then, and runs through the first Sunday in October.

For some attendees on Sept 18, Heidi Fest was their introduction to this tradition. Michael Marino, the Emmy-winning make-up artist behind Klum’s Halloween costume every year, said that he usually did not wear costumes, and added that his lederhosen were slightly too tight.

The party was a brief reprieve for him before turning to Klum’s Halloween costume, which he promised would be “the most elaborate one we’ve ever done”.

British photographer Rankin, who has worked with Klum for more than two decades, said it had been challenging to find an outfit to wear.

“She seems to know what people want,” Rankin said about Klum. “It’s kind of nuts.”

Klum, who said she had never been to Oktoberfest, showed up in a traditional bright red outfit that included a dirndl, appropriately showing a lot of chest, as well as a red skirt and an apron, appropriately covering the knees.

“I feel like you have to continue with the tradition,” she said about her outfit. “I think a lot of people expected me to be in a super short, bedazzled type thing.” (She said she had worn such a bedazzled, short dirndl to Coachella.)

During the evening, she traded a pair of red pumps for a slightly lower pair in white, and later put on New Balance sneakers, to facilitate dancing on the tables until midnight.

Heidi Fest also included the taping of a television special of the night, which was shown the same evening on German TV.

Other guests included Klum’s four children, as well as her husband, German musician Tom Kaulitz, and his twin brother, Bill Kaulitz; Klum’s mother, Erna Klum; Brazilian model Alessandra Ambrosio; Antoine Verglas, a photographer who has long worked with Klum; and Jesus and Antonio Estrada, fashion designing twin brothers.

Jesus Estrada said he appreciated that Heidi Klum was “bringing queerness to Germany” with Heidi Fest and predicted that this would not be the last such party.

Klum agreed.

“Let’s meet again next year,” she said. NYTIMES