Janelle Monáe Strips Down on the 2023 Met Gala Red Carpet

Janelle Monáe‘s Met Gala look had as many layers as a glass onion.

The singer put on a show at the 2023 Met Gala by changing out of a Thom Browne ensemble—which featured a black-and-white patchwork jacket worn over a giant hoop skirt—while on the red carpet May 1 in New York City.

Janelle, 37, gradually began taking off pieces of clothing until there was nearly nothing left, wearing only a black bra top and bottoms with pearl fringe and a pannier petticoat layered over the lingerie. (See every celebrity at the 2023 Met Gala here.)

“Whether it’s in fashion, to tell a story through my armor—there’s a story there,” Janelle told Variety in 2020, explaining that her onstage costumes or “uniforms” began as an homage to the working class. 

Janelle, who uses they/them and she/her pronouns, recalled developing their sense of style while attending a performing arts school in New York and living in a boarding house in Atlanta years back.