‘Talk to the hand’: Heidi Klum unveils her goriest Halloween costume yet
The ‘Queen of Halloween’ marked her 25th party in a prosthetic hand months in the making
Dubai: Heidi Klum, known as the “Queen of Halloween”, has unveiled this year’s costume: a life-sized severed hand, with red nails, gold rings and a bloody wrist.
She revealed the look on Instagram with the caption “TALK TO THE HAND”, after a week of teasers that had fans guessing.
She wore it to her 25th annual Halloween party, held at Cathédrale in New York City on Saturday, October 31.
What the costume looked like
Klum, 53, was almost unrecognisable inside the prosthetic hand. Her legs formed two of the fingers, and her face peeked out through a gory gash at the wrist.
Helpers in yellow hazmat suits and face masks guided her along the blue carpet.
The hand was modelled on her own left hand, according to German outlet Joyn. The costume was so big that she had to be driven to the party in a small truck.
There was a personal detail hidden in it too. Her daughter Leni noticed that Klum had added her own wedding ring to the hand’s jewellery.
Who made it
As in previous years, Klum worked with her long-time collaborator Mike Marino, the prosthetic designer behind Prosthetic Renaissance. She told Bustle back in June that the costume was already in the works.
“It’s going to be tricky for me and tricky for [Mike] to make, but I think it’s going to be epic,” she said.
Marino told NBC it was one of the most elaborate costumes his team had ever made, Joyn reported.
On the night, Klum said 10 to 15 people helped her get into the costume. Many more had spent months building the hand and painting details such as its veins. She came up with the idea a year earlier.
The teasers
Klum started dropping hints months ahead. In September, she told People the costume would be “very, very bloody”.
On October 24, she posted a close-up of colourful prosthetics on Instagram with the caption “One week to go”, Hola reported.
Fans guessed everything from Vecna in Stranger Things to the creature Monstro Elisasue from The Substance and the Clickers from The Last of Us.
“We go gory, and we go there,” Klum said in the run-up.
Klum’s husband, Tokio Hotel guitarist Tom Kaulitz, missed the party because the band had a concert in Hamburg on November 1. Klum joked that he could have been the other hand in a couple’s costume.
Leni came as Miss Piggy, in a purple feather boa, pearls and a pink snout. At a pre-party on October 29, guests included Sofia Vergara, Taylor Momsen, Kyle MacLachlan and Lindsey Vonn.
Twenty-five years of costumes
Klum held her first Halloween party in 2000.
Over the years she has been Princess Fiona in her ogre form from Shrek, with Kaulitz as Shrek, in 2018. She went as a giant worm in 2022, a peacock in 2023 and E.T. in 2024. Last year she was Medusa, while Kaulitz came as a knight turned to stone.
She has said she usually spends more time getting ready than actually celebrating, especially when prosthetics are involved. She also starts planning next year’s look soon after Halloween ends.
