Heidi Klum Spends Six Hours Transforming into Giant Hand for 25th Anniversary Party

The 2026 Halloween party in New York City marked the 25th year of Heidi Klum's annual event, capping a career-defining tradition with a costume that required five to six hours of preparation. Klum, who has hosted the gathering since 2001, transformed into a giant, severed human hand, a look she described as the most physically demanding of her recent entries. The prosthetic design was based on her actual left hand, complete with long red nails, a thumb ring, and her wedding band and engagement ring.

The physical construction of the costume presented a major challenge for the model and television host. Klum noted that the prop was quite heavy, making it difficult to carry around the venue. The top of the hand featured dangling ligaments and tendons, creating a gruesome effect that was accentuated by blood dripping from her mouth. She was accompanied by assistants wearing blood-stained hazmat suits, adding to the macabre aesthetic of the entrance.

Personal details were woven into the intricate design of the prosthetic. A tattoo of her husband's name, Tom Kaulitz, was visible on the ring finger of the giant hand. The costume also replicated her natural palm lines and veins. Kaulitz, a musician, did not attend the party this year due to a touring schedule. Klum acknowledged his absence by noting that a little bit of him was with her in the costume's details.

This latest entry follows a history of elaborate and viral costumes that have defined the party's reputation. In 2022, Klum went viral for arriving at the event on a fishing line while wearing a slithering worm costume. Previous years have seen her dress as the Greek mythological figure Medusa, a peacock, an eight-foot-tall Transformer, and a werewolf from Michael Jackson's Thriller music video. She also appeared as a clone surrounded by lookalikes and as Kali, the Hindu goddess of death and destruction. Klum shared hints of the current hand costume on Instagram earlier in the day as the bloodied prosthetics were applied to her face.

The event continues to be a major fixture in the New York entertainment calendar, with Klum's personal involvement driving the creative direction. Her decision to use her own hand as the template for the 2026 costume represents a return to a more personal and physical approach after the digital and viral nature of recent years. The five to six hours spent in the makeup chair reflect the scale of the production, which has grown over the last decade and a half into a widely anticipated spectacle. The inclusion of specific jewelry and tattoos serves to ground the fantastical element in her personal life, a recurring theme in her most memorable costumes.