Heidi Klum is to Halloween what Mariah Carey is to Christmas. (Minus a seasonal hit song generating kabillions in royalties.) So while many herald November 1 as the beginning of Mimi Szn, for Heidi it starts the one-year countdown to developing next year’s costume. I’m not even exaggerating. At her annual Heidi Klum Halloween bash in NYC on Saturday, Heidi herself told reporters that her look came together after a year of brainstorming and four months of construction — and that was with plenty of helping hands. That joke is hilarious because that’s what Heidi went as this year: her own dismembered hand. Her face peeked through from the gory severing point at the wrist, while her legs were dressed as her middle and ring fingers, the latter donning replicas of her engagement and wedding rings. I’m guessing the rest of Heidi’s body said to her hand: “In anatomy, one day you’re in and the next day you’re out.”
Klum had only her eyes and mouth showing as she attended her annual Halloween party in New York on Oct. 31, appearing as the grotesque severed human hand. The bloody costume was complete with long red nails, replicas of her engagement and wedding rings.
“I was looking at my hand and I was like ‘Hmm … I wonder if I could fit in a hand,’” she tells PEOPLE at the event. “I was looking at my fingers, and I was like, ‘Fingers could actually be legs.’”
“Then my arms could be more fingers and I could put my body in there somehow, so that’s what I proposed to [makeup designer Mike Marino],” she says.
Marino admits to PEOPLE that he wasn’t initially in favor of the severed hand idea because of the “difficulty” pulling the look off.
He says that it took four months to make the costume after a year of brainstorming.
Klum arrived at her Halloween party joined by helpers wearing blood-stained hazmat suits.
While reflecting on her previous looks, she tells PEOPLE, “I still have all of my costumes. I saw something the other day where people were like ‘Oh that they all go into the garbage,’ but they don’t … I come out of this, it’s not completely ruined, they all get stored and they are all in a box in storage.”
Having revealed that she comes up with her costume ideas alone, Klum adds, “We all do different things.”
Klum began teasing this year’s costume in an Instagram post shared on Saturday, Oct. 24.
“What’s my costume?🤪,” she asked in the caption alongside a close-up image of what seemed to be an extravagant prosthetic that will likely make her look unrecognizable. “One week to go…”
The Project Runway host also shared a short video to her Instagram Stories showing herself browsing the aisles of a store filled with thousands of fabrics.
On Tuesday, Oct. 27, Klum teased another costume detail on Instagram, sharing a photo of what appeared to be prosthetic intestines.
In September, Klum told PEOPLE that she was already hard at work planning her next big costume. While she didn’t reveal her exact plans, she did tease that it would be a “very bloody” look that “goes very well with red wine.”
Hot take: Heidi Klum dresses better in costume than she does for the red carpet. Think about all the fug, ill-fitting, age-inappropriate looks she trots out in the rest of the year. Her fashion sense errs on the side of tacky showgirl, even Michael Kors couldn’t pretend otherwise during the original run of Project Runway! Then compare that aesthetic with her Halloween outfits, or even her look for the Met Gala this year. (Sidenote: the Met Gala look was another collaboration with SFX makeup artist Mike Marino, who won an Emmy for turning Colin Farrell into The Penguin and has three Oscar noms. I love that Heidi always honors his work.) Then again, even in costume Heidi can, uh, make questionable choices. Once she went inside the party on Saturday, Heidi stripped down to just a bloodied-up bodysuit with her legs still as two fingers. Then, incongruously, she threw a blonde wig on top of it all. Why the wig, Heidi?
PS — “I was like ‘Hmm … I wonder if I could fit in a hand.’” I don’t have a retort prepared, I just thought that comment bore repeating.
Heidi Klum poses on the carpet at her annual Halloween party in NYC https://t.co/gtmP1tXB60
— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) November 1, 2026
Photos credit: UrbanxDivinity/Backgrid
Why is she so obsessed with Halloween,I lived in Europe for years and truly the majority of people never got hyped over it. Maybe in Germany it’s more popular or maybe it’s her way to immerse herself in this American culture.(Even if it did originate in Ireland or wherever)
She likes it. I don’t think she needs to have a reason. Her costumes are always great fun.
She lives in Los Angeles, so yeah, she’s surrounded by American culture.
Halloween is friggin’ awesome!! I celebrate all October with spooky books and movies and costume planning for the big day. It’s fine if not all cultures embrace it, but that’s not like the chocolate is always better in Europe. There’s no bonus points for being too refined for a good time.
She grew up in a Karneval area. And since there is no Karneval in the US, at least nothing comperable to the rhineland Karneval, Halloween is next best for costumes.
I mean, I’m not her biggest fan, but this kinda rocks.
Gross, but full points for the execution!
🤣🤣🤣👍
I have to say that is absolutely amazing that they were able to produce that thing. That being said, yech!
I absolutely hate this. I dislike her other costumes as well. It makes me not like her either.