Mindy Kaling Jokes She Keeps Red Carpet Gowns So Her 2 Daughters Can ‘Fight Over Them’ When They Grow Up (Exclusive)

Kaling tells PEOPLE that she didn't start holding onto her dresses until she had kids

When Mindy Kaling started having children, her house became full — full of joy, full of laughter, full of little kid screams and full of all the stuff kids need.

Her own closet also got a lot more full, because unlike the days before she was a mom, she started to hang onto all of her gorgeous red carpet gowns, because she now had someone to pass them on to.

"I used to be like, 'Well, I could never wear it again. So I don't need to keep it,'" Kaling told PEOPLE at Sephoria, Sephora's annual convention, in September. "Sometimes I would ask to keep them or buy them, but rarely."

That all changed when she welcomed her first daughter, Katherine "Kit," 6, and was cemented when she further welcomed another daughter Anne in February. She is also mom to son Spencer, 3.

Related: Mindy Kaling Says Daughter Kit, 6, Has a ‘Lot of Strong Opinions’ About Fashion — and Already Loves Makeup (Exclusive)

"Now that I have two daughters, I was literally like, they're going to be so annoyed that there's so many gowns that I didn't keep," she joked. "So now I'm making a more considerate effort."

One gown she made sure to hold onto was her Gaurav Gupta gown from the 2024 Emmys. The sparkly black gown with sculptural shoulders made a statement on the carpet, and Kaling fell in love with it immediately — and she knew she wanted to keep it for her girls.

"After the Emmys, I asked Gaurav Gupta, 'Oh, do you think I could buy the gown?' And he gifted it to me, which is one of the most unexpected and generous things. That never happens. It's in a pristine bag, vacuum-sealed in my closet for my two daughters to fight over later."

Related: Mindy Kaling Says It ‘Never Gets Old Being in Glam’ — but She Still Loves a ‘Makeup-Free Moment’ (Exclusive)

Kaling also wore a gown by the Indian designer to this year's Met Gala, and she called the dresses "bookends" to her year as they were so contrasting in style and color. Her Met Gala dress was a voluminous cream number, while the Emmys gown was sleek and dark.

"The Met Gala [dress] was taking up space on purpose and the cream color is a shade I don't usually wear," she told PEOPLE exclusively, noting that the Emmys dress is more her speed. "He's just so talented and I loved being able to showcase the different things you can do [on a red carpet]."

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Kaling said oldest daughter, Kit, might be ready to follow in her fashionable mom's footsteps — and she already has plenty of opinions about what's hot and what's not.

"She has a really specific vision of what she thinks is pretty and what she doesn't," Kaling said. "[A dress is] not glamorous to her unless it touches the ground. I think it's because you're not allowed to wear evening-length gowns to first grade. So it's like the forbidden. So when I go out, if I'm just wearing a minidress, she's like, 'It doesn't touch the ground. It's not beautiful.' So she has a lot of strong opinions."

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