Tom Kaulitz and Heidi Klum outdid themselves this year.
Noam Galai/Getty Images for Heidi Klum Halloween
Heidi Klum has thrown a Halloween party nearly every year since 2000.
She goes all out for her costumes, which include prosthetics, props, and intense makeup.
We ranked her 24 costumes based on creativity, execution, and overall aesthetics.
Supermodel Heidi Klum has often been called the “queen of Halloween.”
Since 2000, she has thrown an annual Halloween party, excluding 2012 and 2020, and is known for going all out with over-the-top costumes. In recent years, the costumes have used extensive prosthetics and taken months to create. In fact, this year’s ET costume took a full 12 months to create and 30 FX artists, Vogue reported. It took seven hours for her to undergo her full transformation.
But not all of her costumes have been this labor-intensive. Klum has sometimes opted for a simpler costume that someone without access to thousands of dollars and a team of artists could attain.
Here’s every Halloween costume the model has ever worn, ranked — in our opinion — from worst to best. Klum did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Charles Eshelman/FilmMagic/Getty Images
At this point, it’s been proven over and over again that you should generally stay away from making someone’s culture your Halloween costume, a lesson that Klum learned in 2008 after prominent Hindus called the costume “denigrating,” Vogue wrote.
“It was actually my assistant’s idea,” Klum told reporters at the time, per Vogue. “My husband and I were in India last year, so she said, ‘Why don’t you do an Indian goddess? Like a scary Indian goddess?’ And I said ‘OK!'”
Michael Loccisano/Getty Images for Heidi Klum
Dressing up as Cleopatra, though it’s extremely common, also falls into some morally gray territory. Besides that, it’s not a particularly interesting costume, apart from the giant headpiece, so perhaps it’s for the best she canceled the party.
Jesse Grant/WireImage/Getty Images
In our opinion, Klum resembles a rat more than a cat. Plus, a cat is one of the most obvious Halloween costumes, and we expect more from a Halloween queen like Klum.
DAVID CROTTY/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images
There’s nothing particularly notable about this couple’s costume, which is why it earns this low spot. We also don’t really know why Seal is wearing a sunflower lapel pin or yellow gloves.
Michael Stewart/FilmMagic/Getty Images
If she had made everyone wear a more interesting costume, this would’ve been higher, but as it stands, the bodysuit and thigh-high boots aren’t bold enough to deserve a better spot.
Tom Wargacki/WireImage/Getty Images
This costume is simple but effective. The black wig and red lip are a big enough departure from Klum’s ultra-recognizable look that even if she hadn’t worn the leather ensemble, she still would’ve been incognito.
Evan Agostini/Getty Images
Yes, she really leveled up in the commitment to her costumes in 2003, but we’re not quite sure what she’s supposed to be. She wore a golden catsuit, had long golden braids, metallic golden boots, and a gold grill.
Evan Agostini/Getty Images
Again, we’re not totally sure what Klum is supposed to be, but the giant red wig is iconic.
Evan Agostini/Getty Images
Once again, Klum wore a giant wig. She paired her dress with thigh-high boots, vampire fangs, and wings.
Dimitrios Kambouris/WireImage/Getty Images
Klum mainly relies on full-body prosthetics now, but her 2002 Betty Boop costume proves that with the right wig, make-up, and red dress (and a potential butt prosthetic), you can still completely transform yourself.
Evan Agostini/Getty Images
At just her second Halloween party, Klum was showing us that her title of Halloween queen was not to be questioned. She turned heads when she rode into her party as the legend Lady Godiva.
Michael Tran/FilmMagic/Getty Images
Klum looked like she stepped right out of “Bodies: The Exhibition” for her 2011 party. It looks like it took hours in the makeup chair to paint her entire head red.
Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Heidi Klum
A butterfly is also a basic costume, but unlike when she dressed up as a cat, Klum took it to a whole new level with these gigantic wings and the mask with butterfly eyes.
Gotham/FilmMagic/Getty Images
There’s so much happening here, we don’t know where to start. The cut-open stomach with guts spilling out? The wires coming out of her nipples? The exposed brain?
This no doubt took time, planning, and the effort of very talented artists, but since we can’t quite tell what she is, the 2019 costume lands in the middle of the pack.
Gregg DeGuire/WireImage/Getty Images
Most people would just dress as Adam and Eve, but Seal and Klum aren’t most people. Dressing up as both a giant apple and the temptress serpent is a creative spin, and then, of course, Seal being Eve makes sense, as it’s she who gets tempted.
The color-blocked tights and two separate boots (one green snakeskin, one red leather) are a nice touch.
Mike Coppola/Getty Images for Heidi Klum
The prosthetic work here is truly impressive and looks real, from the wrinkly neck to the veiny legs. It might not be the most glamorous or sexy costume, but she really took an easy costume to a whole new level.
Bryan Bedder/Getty Images
This costume is a mix between a giant robot and a superhero. Her entire body was covered in bright purple face paint, and she even learned to walk on stilts to attend the party.
Jemal Countess/Getty Images
These two wouldn’t have been out of place on the set of “Planet of the Apes” in these Hollywood-grade prosthetics and costumes.
While animals may be low-hanging fruit in terms of Halloween costumes, monkeys are frequently done, but rarely this well. We commend Klum, Seal, and their team of artists who put this look together.
Andrew Toth/WireImage/Getty Images
In what’s basically her Betty Boop costume leveled-up, Klum looked exactly like the animated character from “Who Framed Roger Rabbit,” voiced by Kathleen Turner. The costume should just be retired now — no one can top this.
Michael Loccisano/Getty Images
You can see how time-consuming this process was on her Instagram — basically, every feature is prosthetic, from nose to feet.
Andrew Toth/FilmMagic/Getty Images
Klum nailed every detail of this costume, from the cropped pants and white socks to the letterman jacket and werewolf mask.
Getty Images for Heidi Klum
Klum’s peacock costume took more than 1,963 hours to create. It consisted of a blue velvet bodysuit that covered her entirely, plus a feather-covered mask with a realistic-looking beak. When she entered the party, she changed into another peacock bodysuit with sheer cutouts and large feather wings.
Klum partnered with Cirque du Soleil and makeup artist Bill Corso to create the look, and she was accompanied by an entourage of 10 Cirque du Soleil acrobats who created the illusion of the model’s wings on the orange carpet.
Her husband, Tom Kaulitz, also joined the group costume by dressing as a giant peacock egg.
Taylor Hill/Getty Images
Kaulitz accompanied the model in a fisherman’s costume, complete with a pole and line attached to his wife. A video of Klum on the red carpet showed her inching herself along before she stretched out on the ground for an interview with Entertainment Tonight.
Klum said that the costume took a few months to build and required multiple fittings.
Noam Galai/Getty Images for Heidi Klum Halloween
What can we say? This is Klum’s best costume — you can barely even see her unless you take a close look at its neck.
Both Klum and her husband dressed as ET from “ET the Extra-Terrestrial,” the 1982 classic directed by Steven Spielberg. Kaulitz, on the left, is a more classic ET, while Klum’s costume pays homage to a scene in the film where Gertie (played by an adorable Drew Barrymore) helps ET dress up.
Klum spoke with The New York Times about what it was like to wear this costume. The head weighed 5 pounds, and it was so difficult to get in and out of the costume that she chose to wear an adult diaper.
The animatronic was remote controlled by someone on her team.
Her longtime collaborator, Mike Marino, called the costume “the most complicated” one they’ve ever created. “Her whole face and body are glued on. And it takes, really, months to build and design,” he said.