Heidi Klum

Heidi Klum: Model

UPDATED 05/14/2001 at 01:00 AM EDT • Originally published 05/14/2001 at 01:00 AM EDT

When she travels, Heidi Klum carries her baby teeth with her in a pouch. "They're good luck charms, "she explains. Of course, luck has had little to do with the 5'9½" supermodel's success. It was her luminescent grin ("My smile is my favorite thing," she says) and voluptuous figure ("I have woman hips") that led to the cover of the 1998 SPORTS ILLUSTRATED swimsuit issue and a contract with Victoria's Secret. "So many models have that hard look, and I think, 'What are they mad about?' " says Ed Razek, the lingerie retailer's creative director. "With Heidi you never get that. Her joie de vivre is infectious." Growing up in Bergisch Gladbach, Germany, Klum, 27, got an early introduction to the beauty biz. Her father, Gunther, 5)5, worked for a cosmetics company, and her mother, Erna, also 56, was a hairdresser. Three years ago she brought another hairdresser into the family by marrying celebrity stylist Ric Pipino, 42, with whom she lives in Manhattan and Cologne, (jaermany. Pipino occasionally takes charge of (lis wife's hair. "I'm trying to get her to try different colors," he says. "But she's like, 'No, no, no, I can't do that!' " There are some risks .Jflum will take. In 1997, for her first appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman, Klum worried she wouldn't be a funny enough guest. "Ric came up with the idea that I should just yodel, and I did," she explains. That skill might come in handy again someday. "I would love to do a movie with Jim Carrey," says Klum, who this year appeared in the comedy Blow Dry. "Something where we just have fun and make faces."