Heidi Klum’s Halloween costumes have become an annual institution. From Medusa, to E.T, to dressing up as a peacock with Cirque du Soleil performers as her feathers, she pulls out all the stops. And it looks like Halloween has come early for the German model, thanks to the 2026 Met Gala.
The 52-year-old model, who fans will recognise from Project Runway and America’s Got Talent, dressed as a live sculpture for the glitzy event, which is often referred to as the Super Bowl of the fashion calendar.
This year’s theme is Fashion is Art and Klum told CBS Mornings that her outfit is “basically a sculpture from the 1800s", explaining that it took her “20 minutes”. She also added that “it’s very flexible actually”.
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According to Variety, her outfit is courtesy of designer Mike Marino, is made of latex and spandex, and is said to be inspired by the Veiled Christ sculpture by Giuseppe Sanmartino, as well as the Veiled Vestal by Raffaele Monti.
As for her inspiration? She told Vogue, "I started at the Met. I went walking around in the Met and I was like this is so beautiful and the drape and it’s all the marble. But how do you do that with fabric? Because I look hard but I’m soft. I can sit. I can eat. It’s foam and latex. I like it to be a little confusing. It’s an illusion.”
What is the 2026 Met Gala theme?
The annual fashion event raises money for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and is co-chaired by former Vogue editor Dame Anna Wintour, Beyoncé, Hollywood star Nicole Kidman, who attended with her daughter Sunday Rose, and tennis champion Venus Williams.
This year’s event is Beyoncé's first appearance at the Met Gala in a decade, and the last time she was a guest in 2016 the theme was Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology theme.
Another showstopping outfit belonged to singer Sam Smith. The Unholy singer, 33, wore a sparkly, all-black ensemble designed by their partner, fashion designer Christian Cowan. And according to People, Smith’s cape weighs in at 52 pounds.
This year’s Met Gala has hit headlines for various reason, among them the fact that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his wife Lauren Sanchez Bezos are sponsors (and co-chairs) of the event.
When it comes to fashion, we’ve seen some truly bonkers Met Gala looks in the past, but the celebs who attend are actually given a dress code, as well as an invitation to tailor their outfits to the event’s theme.
The Met Gala doubles as a launch event for the Costume Institute's spring exhibition, and the theme is generally aligned with that, along with a slightly more open-to-interpretation dress code.
This year’s theme is ‘Costume Art’, to tie in with a Costume Institute exhibition, which pairs paintings and sculptures with historical and contemporary clothes.
It looks to deal with ‘the centrality of the dressed body in the museum’s vast collection.'
British Vogue says the dress code ‘encourages attendees to consider the many ways that designers use the body as their blank canvas’.
Previous themes and dress code have included:
2025
Theme: Superfine: Tailoring Black Style
Dress code: Tailored for You
2024
Theme: Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion
Dress code: The Garden of Time
2023
Theme: Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty
Dress code: In honour of Karl
Kerri-Ann Roper