Heidi Klum attends the Halloween party 2024 in an elaborate ET costume

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CNN
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Heidi Klum calls home.

The most anticipated costume for the spooky season is here – and the “Queen of Halloween” didn’t disappoint.

Continuing her tradition of wearing extremely elaborate outfits to her own annual star-studded bash, Klum arrived at this year's party dressed as ET

The 51-year-old model made a dramatic appearance at New York's Hard Rock Hotel. Her face peeked out from the alien's neck beneath an animatronic head that blinked and moved its mouth. Since the costume's feet were at knee height, a raised stage (and a smoke machine) helped create the impression that Klum was walking around on ET's signature stubby legs.

The former Victoria's Secret Angel completed the look with an oversized wig, dress and lipstick – a nod to when Drew Barrymore's character Gertie dressed the alien in Steven Spielberg's 1982 film ET: The Extra-Terrestrial.

Klum's husband, Tom Kaulitz, also attended the party as ET, his wig-less costume providing a sort of “his and hers” look (though Spielberg has long maintained that the character is neither male nor female).

Speaking to The New York Times before the event, Klum said her glowing fingertips and motorized headdress, which weighed about five pounds, were controlled remotely by a member of her team. She also revealed plans to wear an adult diaper as it would be difficult to take off the costume during the party, saying: “Maybe I'll never have to use it, but at least this way I don't have to think about it.”

Klum kept fans guessing until the last minute by sharing close-up photos of the costume on social media and broadcasting her preparations (albeit with the outfit hidden) live via Amazon Live on Thursday.

The model was joined at the pre-party program by her longtime collaborator Mike Marino, the Hollywood prosthetic designer behind several of her most complex Halloween costumes. Marino called this year's draft “probably the most complicated one we've ever done.”

“Her whole face and body are glued,” he said. “And it actually takes months to build and design.”

Klum said Marino initially thought the costume was too complex. “When I asked Mike if he could make this costume for me, his first answer was 'No,'” she said on Amazon Live, recalling that she “kept begging” him to change his mind.

The German model held the first of her annual events on October 31, 2000, seven years after she moved to the US and “fell in love” with Halloween. “All that was missing was an amazing party,” she told The Hollywood Reporter in 2018.

Since then, the party has become one of the most talked about Halloween parties, thanks in part to Klum's imaginative costumes. In recent years she has appeared as a robot, a peacock, a werewolf, Princess Fiona from Shrek and, perhaps most famously, a giant earthworm in 2022.

At this year's event, The Roots drummer Questlove appeared as the Mad Hatter, model Haley Kalil dressed as Tim Burton's Corpse Bride and The Real Housewives of New York star Bethenny Frankel as Wonder Woman.

Meanwhile, influencer Zach Justice, dressed as KFC's Colonel Sanders, arrived with an oversized egg, which he opened to reveal “America's Got Talent” contortionist Sofie Dossi, folded inside in a chicken costume.

Klum's costume may have won the award for most elaborate costume, but she wasn't the only celebrity alien this year. Apparently coincidentally, Janelle Monae posted her own ET costume on social media the day before. The actor and musician worked with special effects artists to produce the outfit, which also featured a glowing fingertip, for an appearance on “The Jennifer Hudson Show.”