Photo: TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty

Janelle Monae attends the ‘Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty’ Costume Institute Gala at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 2, 2011. AFP PHOTO / TIMOTHY A. CLARY (Photo credit should read TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images)

Janelle Monáeis teasing her 2023Met Galalook ahead of the big event on Monday.

TheKnives Outstar, 37, shared with PEOPLE what fashion lovers can look forward to with her Met Gala ensemble while celebrating 130 years of cultured pearls with Japanese jewelry brand Mikimoto in New York City’s Central Park Tower Penthouse on Saturday.

“It’s such a surprise. I have an experience that I’ve put together,” she said. “You have to watch. Watch that red carpet because you don’t want to miss a beat.”

While Monáe cannot attest to the “Met Gala bathroom experience” because she has yet to use the facilities, she shared that a fun person to sit next to inside the gala is “whoever’s not taking themselves seriously.”

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Craig Barritt/Getty for Mikimoto America

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - APRIL 29: Janelle Monáe attends Mikimoto 130th Anniversary Celebration at Central Park Tower on April 29, 2023 in New York City. (Photo by Craig Barritt/Getty Images for Mikimoto America )

“It’s supposed to be fun. It’s supposed not to be serious. So I always enjoy people who are not stressed out over the Met Gala because I’m not,” she added.

However, the event is ultimately “supposed to be for me.” She continued, “I go as an art student. You have an assignment. This is the theme. And me and my team are literally like art students collaborating on a group project, and we’re there.”

This year’s theme,Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty, couldn’t be more fitting for Monáe, who shared that her most memorable Met Gala to date was herfirst one in 2011 wearing Chanelwith thelate creative director of the luxury brand.

Kevin Mazur/WireImage

NEW YORK, NY - MAY 02: Janelle Monae attends the “Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty” Costume Institute Gala at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 2, 2011 in New York City. (Photo by Kevin Mazur/WireImage)

“I went with Karl, so this is sort of full circle for us to be honoring him. I’m really excited about what we’ll do,” she told PEOPLE.

As for her greatest memory with Lagerfeld, she said it “was when he asked me to perform at the Chanel show in Dubai.”

Francois Nel/Getty

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - MAY 13: Karl Lagerfeld and Janelle Monae pose for a photograph after the Chanel Cruise Collection 2014/2015 at The Island on May 13, 2014 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. (Photo by Francois Nel/Getty Images)

Monáe added, “Then there’s a moment where he was in the audience at another event. This is now a different event that he invited me to, and he sketched me while I performed and gave me the sketch afterward.”

The actress and singer revealed that she still has that sketch “hidden” somewhere and will eventually have it framed “because it’s really amazing.”

It was through this sketch that she realized just how “incredible” a visual artist Lagerfeld was. “I knew that he was a really good artist, but it took him less than 15 minutes, and he had a full sketch of my body, my movement,” Monáe said.

She also shared that she relates to the fashion designer always wearing black and white, telling PEOPLE, “He’s probably worn black and white longer than me, and I’m next after him.”

source: people.com