Considering Heidi Klum is the queen of the Halloween costume, it’s no surprise that the model’s 2026 Met Gala look didn’t hold back for this year’s theme —”Costume Art.” The “Project Runway” host looks like she’s literally carved out of marble, but in reality, can move about as she pleases.
The Supermodel Is Unrecognizable
GettyKlum, one of the stars with a surrealist take on the dress code, wears faux-stone fabric fashioned to resemble something from the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Greek and Roman Art collection. The draped rock look is completed with gray, veined body paint and what looks to be an extremely heavy flower crown.
Klum’s Look Is Surprisingly Comfortable
Breaking character to smile and wave at photographers, the German star shows she’s clearly having fun with the look.
Klum told Ashley Graham and Cara Delevigne, hosts of the “Vogue” red carpet livestream, that for a woman who looks like a hunk of marble, she’s feeling easy breezy, “I look hard, but I’m soft. I can sit, I can eat. It’s foam and latex.”
The model does concede that she’s “a little warm,” but blames it on the warm New York City weather rather than the look itself that’s making her feel a touch toasty.
She goes on to tell the fellow models that the idea for the look started with a visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where the sculptures captured her attention. In the end, Klum decided to go with a direct reference to “Veiled Vestal,” a piece by Italian artist and ahtuor Raffaelle Monti commissioned by the 6th Duke of Devonshire in 1846.
“Fashion is art. Art is fashion,” Klum tells Graham and Delevigne.
Klum’s Look Bucks Met Gala Tradition
While celebrities typically attend the event as guests of specific fashion designers, the German star, with no shortage of fashion industry contacts, took a completely different route. Klum eschewed runway designs in favor of working with a VFX artist.
On Instagram, Klum reveals that Mike Marino, the artisan behind Prosthetic Renaissance, “transformed fabric into sculpture, manipulating latex and spandex with extraordinary precision to mirror the stillness, delicacy, and illusion of carved marble.”
The host goes on to say the design “doesn’t just dress the body, but elevates it into art itself.” Plus, she can give fellow celebrities a jump scare should she decide to remain completely still in the halls of the museum.
You might not know the name, but you’ve probably seen Marino’s work. He transformed Sebastian Stan for 2024’s “A Different Man,” which earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Makeup and Hairstyling. And this isn’t his first time collaborating with Heidi Klum — Marino is the model’s go-to for creating the over-the-top Halloween looks she’s come to be known for, helping the beauty turn into E.T., Medusa, and more over the years.
