Heidi Klum, model and TV personality, hosts an extravagant Halloween party every year with revolutionary costumes. Her red carpet is filled with some of Hollywood’s biggest names, dressed head-to-toe in spooky personas, but one person always stands out over everyone else: the host herself, Klum.
This Oct. 31 in New York City, Klum transformed herself into Medusa. According to Greek mythology, those who look into Medusa’s eyes turn to stone. This being, Klum’s husband, Tom Kaulitz, dressed as a stone-turned Greek soldier.
Klum told E! News that this look took around five months to plan and execute. The costume held wired snakes mechanically writhing atop her head with a battery pack located in the 8-foot tail. The tail also housed wheels that gave her the ability to roll around. Klum’s team took about 10 hours to make her unrecognizable. Her entire costume was crafted from hand-painted scales.
“About 15 people have been working on this, and I think they did a fantastic job,” Klum said in her E! News Interview.
The costume featured a five-inch, split, reptile tongue that hung out of her mouth and was attached onto her real tongue with a suction cup device.
Mike Marino, Klum’s costume designer, found inspiration from Designer Ray Harryhausen’s snakeline, stop-motion Medusa from “Clash of the Titans” (1981).
“I’ve been thinking about Medusa for quite some time,” Klum told E! News, “because I’ve seen over the years obviously many, many Medusas, and I thought, You know, one day I’m going to try my own… I really wanted to have snakes that were moving, a super-ugly, super-scary face, really ugly teeth, and to be like a really long rattlesnake.”
Medusa follows last year’s E.T., the main character in Steven Spielberg’s 1982 movie of the same name. In the past, she has also dressed as a Peacock, the Forbidden Fruit, Jessica Rabbit and so much more. Klum has mastered the art of Halloween cosmetics over the years. Klum’s annual parties began back in 2000 with her first costume being “Leather Heidi.” The only year the party did not take place was during the 2020 COVID pandemic.
“When I moved to America, I immediately fell in love with Halloween and the spookiness of it,” she told The Hollywood Reporter in 2018. “All that was missing was a fantastic party. It felt like a real opportunity for me.”
The 2025 party was sponsored by Butterfinger, the Hard Rock Hotel and Freeform.
The guest list included notable celebrities like James Charles, Darren Criss and Amaya Papaya.
Klum claims that she begins planning next year’s costume right after the party ends on Halloween, so one can only wonder what 2026 will bring.