Mindy Kaling Attends Diwali Party in Pants and Her Daughter Was Unimpressed (Exclusive)

Mindy Kaling loves color, but for her latest Diwali event, she decided to step outside the box and wear classic black.

She also wore pants.

“It’s a bit of an unusual silhouette for an Indian event and I was really excited,” Kaling, 44, tells PEOPLE at the Diwali bash she co-hosted with Lion Pose and Dagne Dover.

Normally she says she goes for something traditional, but this time she was happy to wear pants – and for her glamorous look she turned to the luxury brand Cherie D, run by Indian women Sherina Dalamal and Payal Asnani.

Poorna Jagannathan, Mindy Kaling and Richa Moorjani at a Diwali event.

Natasha Campos/Getty

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

“They were showing me all these different silhouettes and they said, ‘We’ve got pants,'” says Kaling. “And I said, ‘I’d love to go to a fancy event during Diwali week and be able to wear pants.’ So yeah, it’s kind of fun because I’ve never done a peplum pant silhouette before.”

Although Kaling was thrilled with her glam pants for the Diwali celebration — as was her son Spencer, 3, she says — daughter Katherine, 5, thought she could have done better with her look.

“My daughter, who is very traditionalist, said, ‘How come you’re not wearing a dress?’” Kaling tells PEOPLE. “She saw that I was wearing trousers and thought it was less classy. I said, ‘Are you kidding me now? This is the most stylish I’ve looked in months.’ And she’s like, ‘Pants.’ Phoned. She is hard to please.”

Mindy Kaling dazzles on the 2023 Met Gala red carpet in a traffic-stopping Jonathan Simkhai gown

Angela Kinsey, Mindy Kaling and Joshua Snyder at a Diwali event.

Natasha Campos/Getty

On a more serious note, though, Kaling admits that her decision to wear black to the event in recent weeks also stemmed from the writers’ strike and the SAG-AFTRA strike going on in Hollywood. Kaling says that the difficult nature of the events affecting her work naturally affected her general mood as well — and it showed in her clothes.

“I think there was something about when we were on strike that it felt less natural to ‘I’m going to wear hot pink’ or the bright jewel tones that I usually wear,” she says. “I just felt like because I wasn’t working, so many people were out of work and I felt like I was a little more serious.”

But even though she wore black for the event, celebrating India’s Festival of Lights, Kalinga’s outfit was still ultra glam and included jewels, beads and even feathers. Feathers may not be her usual thing, but she says she can’t have Diwali without glitz and glamour. And there is not too much!

Mindy Kaling Wore the Same Peekaboo Dress in Two Colors to the 2023 Oscars: One to Walk, One to Present

Nisha Pahuja and Mindy Kaling at a Diwali event.

Natasha Campos/Getty

“I wear bracelets on both wrists. I wear rings on all my fingers, huge earrings. I would wear a necklace if I had one. Do you know what I mean? It’s the Festival of Lights, so you have to sparkle and shine as much as you can,” she says.

And when it comes to this important holiday, she makes sure her children are involved and educated. Kaling says her family celebrated Diwali when she was young, but because her parents were working immigrants, they didn’t have time to teach her about the holiday’s history. He wants it to be different for his own children.

Kaling even wrote an entire episode Office about that.

“One of the jokes about it is how few there are [my] Kelly knew about it,” she says. “Which completely overlapped with me not knowing anything about it.”

Mindy Kaling Rocks Manish Malhotra Custom Dress With 4,000 Swarovski Crystals & 300 Feathers (Exclusive)

Shiza Shahid, Shilpa Shah, Mindy Kaling and Janina Gavankar at a Diwali event.

Natasha Campos/Getty

Kaling continues, “It was something I was thrilled about because over the last three, four years it’s become such a bigger holiday with a lot more visibility. Children know about this because the school performs these functions for them. I play huntress. I read a lot about it and learn and ask my friends, aunts and uncles what they did, because it wasn’t something that was a big holiday for us growing up. Of course, I knew about Diwali. For my children, it will be far more profound.”

However, one thing is easy when it comes to Diwali — giving everyone on your list the lion pose. The skincare brand, which Kaling invested in, is her choice because “obviously everything is based in India, it works and I like it.” Also on her gift list? “Sweets are a big deal.”

Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education