Heidi Klum's 2026 Halloween Costume: A Giant, Bloody Replica of Her Own Hand

Heidi Klum has spent a quarter century trying to top herself on Halloween, and this year she went with something nobody saw coming: a giant, gruesome, severed version of her own left hand.

Klum showed off the costume Saturday night, Oct. 31, at the 25th anniversary of her annual Halloween party in New York. According to the Associated Press, as published by CBS News, she was unrecognizable, with only her eyes and mouth showing and blood dripping from her mouth as she stuck out her tongue. The top of the hand ended in dangling ligaments and tendons, and she was surrounded by helpers dressed in blood-stained hazmat suits.

Heidi Klum’s 2026 Halloween costume: what it looked like

The costume was not just any hand. It was a replica of Klum’s own left hand, with long red nails, a thumb ring, and her engagement ring and wedding band, the AP reported. The details also included her palm lines and veins.

Klum told Vogue that her longtime costume designer, Mike Marino, and his ProRenFX team built the piece using existing scans of her body. “We wanted everything to be as realistic as possible—the anatomy, the veins, the muscles, all the little details that make a hand look like a real hand,” she said. “It’s not just any giant hand: It’s my giant hand!”

The party took place at Cathédrale, a restaurant in Manhattan, according to Vogue.

Heidi Klum hand: how the idea started

Klum has said the concept came from something very ordinary. “I looked at my hand and I thought, ‘Hey, I think I could fit my body in this somehow,’” she told reporters on the red carpet, per the AP. To the BBC, she added that she had never seen “an actual person walking around like a hand” and thought it was “something new and different.”

She told Vogue the idea first came to her about a year ago, before her 2025 party. She tried to pitch it to Marino back then, but he told her he needed to focus on that year’s Medusa costume first.

How long it took

Getting into the costume took about five to six hours, Klum said, according to the AP, while building it took much longer. She posted hints on Instagram earlier in the day as bloody prosthetics were applied to her face.

The BBC reported that she said the costume needed up to 20 people to finish. “It took a lot of hands putting this hand together,” she joked. “I think about 10 or 20 hands.” The hardest part, she said, was carrying it: “Hands down, the hardest thing is carrying it. It’s quite heavy.”

Tom Kaulitz: why he wasn’t there

Klum usually builds a couples costume with her husband, Tokio Hotel musician Tom Kaulitz. This year, the AP reported, he did not attend because he was on tour. He was still part of the look: the hand included a tattoo of his name on her ring finger. “A little bit of Tom is with me,” Klum said.

Last year, Variety noted, Kaulitz went as an ancient Greek soldier that Klum’s Medusa had turned to stone.

Heidi Klum Halloween costumes over the years

The hand joins a long list of Klum’s elaborate transformations. Across various reports, past costumes include:

• Medusa (2025): A headpiece of writhing snakes and a trailing tail. Variety reported it took a team of 15 artists.
• A worm: One of her most talked-about looks, mentioned by both Vogue and Variety among her past costumes.
• E.T. and Fiona from “Shrek”: Both cited by Vogue and Variety.
• A peacock and a butterfly: Creature costumes listed among her past looks.
• Jessica Rabbit and the “Thriller” werewolf: Variety and the AP both point to these.
• An 8-foot-tall “Transformer,” Kali and a clone look: The AP noted these, including a year she appeared with several Klum lookalikes.

The Halloween party scene

Klum’s party draws a crowd of famous guests in costume. The BBC reported that attendees this year included Neil Patrick Harris, pop star Jade Thirlwall, who came as a stone angel statue, and “Severance” actor Tramell Tillman, who wore detailed face makeup and prosthetics.

Klum told Vogue the anniversary made this year special. “Twenty-five years of Halloween, costumes, incredible transformations, and so many amazing memories,” she said. “My favorite part is that nobody holds back!”

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