For a few seconds, people thought they were looking at Melania Trump. But they were mistaken. Melania wasn’t at the Academy Awards. It was Heidi Klum who had some thinking they were seeing double.
Melania’s style is her go-to, a failproof mix that works. Photos don’t lie, ever. Pics through the years of Melania show that she has maintained a certain look. “Thought it was Melania for a moment,” one viewer penned when taking to X. They had mistakenly identified Klum as Melania.
Another pointed out that she was a “Melania Trump clone.” Over and over again, people shared the notion that there were too many similarities to miss. After the Academy Awards ended, the afterparty began in earnest. And many of the celebrities were wearing new looks. Klum included, says the Mirror.
Klum wore a butter-yellow gown. The dress had sheer cutouts across her chest and down her legs. A daring design by Chrome Hearts.
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But, she was restrained when it came to her styling. With her smoky eyes and loose ombré hair, she stayed close to the Klum we know. However, it was also close to Melania’s.
Melania Trump’s has a signature look, and she has faithfully stuck to it over the years – always. Melania wears dark-lined eyes like a prayer, and she is obsessed with neutral tones. That combination of her hair, makeup, and even the way she carried herself led to people comparing the two women. Social media users were ready with their barbed responses from the get-go.
We all lost the bet!
First Lady Melania Trump 🇺🇸 stuns at the State Banquet in canary yellow
Wow ✨ https://t.co/VX7KwAIoTk pic.twitter.com/IliiY56IYn
— Mambo Italiano (@mamboitaliano__) September 17, 2025
The overlap between Klum and Melania derailed many and it even created some confusion online. For one, their vivid ombre hair color is almost identical. Not to mention that Klum’s makeup portrayed Melania vibes that evening.
Klum’s dress stirred up plenty of opinions too. Some called it boring, while a few thought it didn’t fit her right. Others loved how it showed off her figure and paired with simple styling. There wasn’t a verdict. There was just a split crowd, chiming in with their opinions in both directions.
Earlier that evening, for her Oscars main carpet look, Klum went for a different kind of . She wore a nude, strapless gown with a full skirt. Classic. She rounded it off with pearl chokers and a necklace with a single cross.
Heidi Klum arrives to the #Oscars pic.twitter.com/EcTL7fAZNf
— Variety (@Variety) March 15, 2026
Some viewers found it underwhelming — you can’t please everybody. A few described it as ill-fitting. Others went the opposite direction, pointing to the way it highlighted Klum’s figure and kept the styling simple. There was no clear consensus. It divided the netizen crowd.
Klum has been working these spaces for decades. She knows fashion. While the Oscars tends to be a more formal event, the Vanity Fair party is where you come to let your hair down. It is where celebs go after the stress of the evening is over. It’s where many of the more experimental looks show up.
In this case, it wasn’t just the dress. It was the face people thought they recognized. It’s the similarities between the first lady, who also used to be a model, and a fashion icon.
