Heidi Klum celebrated 25 years of hosting her Halloween party in New York on Saturday by showing up as a giant, gory severed hand, a replica of her own left one.
The 53-year-old supermodel and TV host could not be recognized inside the costume. Only her eyes and mouth were visible, with blood running from her lips as she stuck out her tongue, while ligaments and tendons hung from the top of the hand.
A crew of helpers dressed in bloodied hazmat suits escorted her. Klum said the concept came to her a year ago, when she looked at her hand and figured her body could fit inside a version of it.
I always try to come up with something unusual and I don't think I've seen an actual person walking around like a hand.
Heidi Klum, supermodel and TV host
Personal touches on the hand
The hand copies hers closely: long red nails, a thumb ring, her engagement ring and wedding band, plus her palm lines and veins. The ring finger carries a tattoo bearing the name of her husband, musician Tom Kaulitz.
Kaulitz skipped the party this year because he was on tour.
Klum said squeezing into the costume took roughly five to six hours, and building it took far longer, with what she estimated were 10 or 20 people working on it. Earlier in the day, she shared teasers on Instagram as bloody prosthetics went on her face.
Past looks and famous guests
She said the toughest part was hauling the heavy piece around, and that she wanted something new because she had never seen a person walking around as a hand.
Hands down, the hardest thing is carrying it
Heidi Klum, supermodel and TV host
Klum's costumes have long drawn attention. In 2022 she went viral arriving on a fishing line inside a writhing worm suit, and she has also appeared as Medusa, a peacock, an 8-foot Transformer, the werewolf from Michael Jackson's Thriller video, Princess Fiona from the Shrek films and the Hindu goddess Kali.
Among this year's guests, actors Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka caught people off guard by coming as the twins in the horror movie The Shining. Singer Jade Thirlwall arrived made up as a stone angel statue, and Tramell Tillman, known for Severance and Spider-Man, wore elaborate face makeup and prosthetics.
