Heidi Klum’s annual Halloween party in New York City has become a hallmark of the holiday, renowned for its extravagant costumes and celebrity guests. This year, the supermodel did not disappoint, unveiling her 2025 costume as the mythical Medusa. She captured the essence of the creature with a head full of animated snakes and a serpentine tail, mesmerizing onlookers with her transformation.
Klum, now 52, delighted her fans by sharing glimpses of her costume preparation throughout the day. Through photos and videos, she showcased the intricate process of becoming Medusa, complete with eerie fangs, vivid green contact lenses, and skin that appeared aged and scaly, enhancing her monstrous allure.
Over the past 20 years, Klum has elevated Halloween from a mere celebration to an art form. Known for her dedication to elaborate and imaginative costumes, she has become a Halloween icon.
Her journey to becoming Halloween royalty began in 2000 with a simpler approach. Attending her first party dressed as a leather-clad dominatrix, she now reflects on that look as rather “boring” compared to her more recent creations.
In an August interview with Jimmy Fallon, Klum reminisced about her humble beginnings. “I had to do my own hair and makeup,” she recalled. “I didn’t know anyone then who specialized in special effects makeup.” Her evolution from those early days to now highlights her commitment to pushing the boundaries of costume design and creativity, solidifying her status as a Halloween legend.
“I had to do my own hair and makeup,” Klum told Jimmy Fallon in August. “I didn’t know anyone at the time who does special effects makeup.”
By 2001, she was riding into her second annual party on a real horse as Lady Godiva.
The annual Halloween bash has since become one of New York City’s most anticipated events, drawing celebrities and media attention as everyone waits to see what impossible transformation Klum has achieved.
Last year, Klum and husband Tom Kaulitz arrived as matching versions of E.T., with Klum portraying a female interpretation of the beloved alien. The costume required a year of planning and the work of about 30 special effects artists. The elaborate prosthetics hid her face in the neck of the costume.
“It was so heavy holding that head on my head because it goes from the back to the front,” Klum told Fallon. “I thought my neck was going to snap off.”
The year before, she turned heads as a living peacock, with nine Cirque du Soleil acrobats forming her tail feathers while Kaulitz arrived as a giant egg.
But Klum’s 2022 transformation into a giant earthworm remains one of her most talked-about costumes. The hyper-realistic invertebrate took two years to create and 10 hours to put on. Her entire body was covered except for her eyes, mouth and the sneakers peeking out from the bottom.
Kaulitz completed the concept as a fisherman with a bloody eye, his hook attached to his wife’s costume.
Klum said she begins planning her next costume on Nov. 1, the day after each party.
“I usually have two or three ideas that I’m playing with and then I decide on one thing,” she told The Hollywood Reporter. “You have to decide at one point because pieces have to be built and all of that.”
She works with prosthetic makeup designers, costume creators and special effects teams to bring her visions to life. For costumes requiring heavy prosthetics, she limits her food and liquid intake three hours before the party.
“I embrace that title,” she said of being called the Queen of Halloween. “And I always want to live up to it, year after year.”
