💃 October 17 – Wear Something Gaudy Day: More Rhinestones, Less Reason 💅
If you’ve ever looked at your closet and thought, “This is all just too...tasteful,” then bless your sparkly soul, because Wear Something Gaudy Day is your time to SHINE (literally and figuratively). 💥👚💍
This glorious day is all about ditching fashion rules and diving headfirst into the loud, proud, and gloriously clashing world of over-the-top style. Sequins? Yes. Leopard print? You bet. A neon feather boa AND knee-high socks with glitter sandals? Honestly, why not?
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👠 So, Who Dreamed Up This Bedazzled Madness?
Like most fashion revolutions, this one has a delightfully random backstory. Wear Something Gaudy Day was popularized by Larry Dallas, a character from the iconic 1970s sitcom Three’s Company. Larry, a smooth-talking used car salesman with a love for attention-grabbing attire, declared this day as a celebration of being unapologetically flashy. And thus, a national treasure was born. 💫
So thank you, Larry, for giving us permission to raid the back of our closets and wear every single “what were you thinking?” item at once.
🧡 10+ Delightfully Tacky Ways to Celebrate Wear Something Gaudy Day
Host a Gaudy Gala 👑 – Invite your friends over for a potluck-style fashion show. Categories include: “Most Bedazzled,” “Loudest Prints,” and “Looks Like a Piñata But Make It Fashion.”
Hit the Town Like a Walking Disco Ball ✨ – Grocery store, gas station, dentist appointment… wherever you go, go gaudy.
DIY Gaudy Accessories 🧵 – Hot glue some googly eyes to a headband. Attach Barbie limbs to your earrings. Bedazzle your crocs. Go wild.
Create a Clashing Outfit Challenge on Social Media 📸 – Use filters that enhance the chaos. Bonus points for fur, fringe, and fishnets.
Gaudy Zoom Meeting 💻 – Show up to your next virtual call in full regalia and say nothing. Just watch the confusion unfold.
Thrift Like a Gaud-God 🛍 – Go to your local thrift store and only buy the weirdest thing you find. Then wear it with pride.
Rock a Gaudy Pet Parade 🐶 – Dress up your dog, cat, or bearded dragon in the most extra outfit they’ll tolerate. Snap pics, post with flair.
Blast a Glam-Rock Playlist 🎶 – Think Elton John, David Bowie, Cher. Let their glittery greatness guide you.
Make a Statement with Slogans 💬 – Wear a shirt that says “I Own 37 Scarves” or “Sequins Are My Religion.”
Host a Tacky Trivia Night 🧠 – Questions must be fashion-related, slightly absurd, and best enjoyed while sipping something bubbly from a gold chalice.
Bedazzle Your Life 🪩 – Your phone case? Bedazzle it. Your stapler? Rhinestone it. Your toothbrush? …Okay, maybe not that one.
🌈 Wear Something Gaudy Day - DINNER THEME: “Tacky on the Outside, Tasty on the Inside” 🌈
🧀 Main Dish: Cheesy Rainbow Pasta Bake
Ingredients:
12 oz rotini or bowtie pasta (bonus points for tricolor)
2 cups shredded cheddar
1 cup mozzarella
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
2 cups milk
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp flour
Optional: food coloring to dye the pasta water (yes, go there)
Salt + pepper
Crushed Flamin’ Hot Cheetos or Doritos for topping
Instructions:
Boil pasta in gaudily dyed salted water (go neon, go bold).
Make a roux: melt butter, stir in flour, then whisk in milk to make a béchamel.
Stir in cheeses until melty and smooth. Add salt and pepper.
Combine pasta with cheese sauce and pour into a baking dish.
Top with crushed chips for crunch and bake at 375°F for 20 mins until bubbly.
Serve it hot and loud, like your outfit.
🥗 Side: Jell-O Fruit “Salad” à la 1970s
Ingredients:
1 box brightly colored Jell-O (lime or orange preferred)
1 cup canned fruit cocktail, drained
1/2 cup mini marshmallows
Optional: whipped cream topping
Instructions:
Mix Jell-O per box instructions. Chill partially, then stir in fruit + marshmallows.
Chill fully. Serve in individual glasses with a cherry on top and zero shame.
🍹 Drink: Gaudy Glitter Punch (Mocktail or Cocktail)
Ingredients:
1 liter lemon-lime soda
1 cup pineapple juice
1/2 cup grenadine
Edible glitter (yes, that’s a thing!)
Optional: vodka or rum
Instructions:
Stir soda, pineapple juice, and grenadine in a pitcher.
Add a pinch of edible glitter and watch the sparkle.
Pour over ice and garnish with a cocktail umbrella and slice of orange.
Sip while striking a pose.
🍰✨ Dessert - Bedazzled Banana Split Sundae Supreme ✨🍰
🍨 Ingredients:
1 banana (split lengthwise like its life depends on it)
3 scoops of ice cream (rainbow sherbet, birthday cake, or anything brightly colored)
Whipped cream (in very dramatic swirls)
Maraschino cherries (plural—why stop at one?)
Sprinkles (rainbow, star-shaped, or metallic)
Crushed candy (Skittles, Nerds, or Fruity Pebbles—gaudy is the goal)
Chocolate syrup + caramel drizzle
Optional: edible glitter or gold leaf (yes, really)
🧁 Instructions:
Slice your banana and place it lovingly in a banana split dish (or whatever bowl is most obnoxiously fancy).
Add 3 neon-hued scoops of ice cream.
Go absolutely unhinged with toppings:
Drizzle all the sauces.
Pile on whipped cream like it owes you money.
Toss sprinkles with chaotic joy.
Add candy for crunch and clash.
Crown with 2–3 cherries because you are a maximalist.
Finish with edible glitter for that over-the-top sparkle.
Eat it with a cocktail umbrella stuck in it, because this dessert has main character energy.
💡 Bonus Vibe Tips:
Dinner table? Nope—TV trays with clashing placemats.
Wear your sunglasses inside. Add costume jewelry.
Blast some ‘80s glam rock or disco.
Call everyone “darling” or “babe” all night.
🧒 ELEMENTARY ACTIVITY: 🎨 “Gaudy Gear Design Studio” – A Wearable Art Workshop
Theme: Unleash your inner fashion disaster (on purpose)! Students will design outrageously gaudy accessories and walk the “Runway of Ridiculous” to celebrate individuality and creativity.
🧵 Materials:
Construction paper (all the bright colors!)
Tape, glue sticks, scissors
Pipe cleaners, feathers, glitter glue ✨
Scrap fabric or tissue paper
Stickers, sequins, aluminum foil
Optional: clean recyclables like bottle caps or cardboard tubes
🪩 Steps:
Morning Welcome: Greet students wearing your most gloriously gaudy outfit—think clashing patterns, bedazzled headbands, and plastic sunglasses. Tell them today is all about being bravely bold and wildly weird. 🎊
Mini-Read Aloud (Optional): Read “Too Much Glue” by Jason Lefebvre or “Purple, Green, and Yellow” by Robert Munsch. Great lead-ins about creativity and chaos!
Design Studio Time: Students work in pairs or groups to design one outrageous fashion accessory—a hat, necklace, belt, sash, or glasses. Encourage maximum gaudiness.
Classroom Catwalk: One at a time (or in small groups), students strut their stuff across a taped-off “runway.” Optional: play upbeat music like “Fashion” by Lady Gaga or “U Can’t Touch This” by MC Hammer for added flair.
Celebrate the Spectacle: Applaud wildly for each model and talk about how being different makes us special.
Extension (Optional Writing): “My Gaudy Invention” – Students write a mini story or explanation of their accessory’s powers or meaning.
🧠 Skills Reinforced: Collaboration, creativity, presentation, self-expression
🧑🏫 SECONDARY ACTIVITY: 🎭 “Gaudy Logic: A Satirical Style Symposium”
Theme: Students explore satire, self-expression, and societal norms through a mock symposium where they argue why their fashion choices are superior—and intentionally outrageous.
🧤 Materials:
Any gaudy outfit elements students can bring from home (or provide a “Gaudy Grab Bag” of scarves, costume jewelry, etc.)
Lined paper or digital writing tools
Optional: projector/slideshow if you want visual “fashion arguments”
📝 Steps:
Warm-Up Prompt:
“Fashion is a form of communication. What does ‘gaudy’ say?”
Discuss: Is it confidence? Chaos? Clowncore couture?Character Creation:
Each student invents a fictional fashion designer, stylist, or “style guru” with a hilariously specific aesthetic (e.g., “Sequinda the Sparkle Witch” or “Professor Plaidson, Defender of Clashing Patterns”).The Symposium Begins:
In character, students present short persuasive speeches (1–2 mins) explaining:Why gaudy fashion is the future
How their style “brand” changes the world
The deeper meaning behind sequins and shoulder pads 🎤
Gaudy Gallery Walk (Optional): Students can display clothing sketches, Pinterest boards, or collages representing their brand.
Wrap-Up Reflection:
Discuss satire and how exaggerated characters can help us critique or celebrate society.
🧠 Skills Reinforced: Public speaking, persuasive writing, satire, creative thinking
BONUS EXTRAS:
👗 Gaudy Spirit Award: Hand out a homemade trophy (spray-painted with glitter, naturally) for “Most Outrageous Outfit,” “Best Clash,” or “Most Committed to the Bit.”
🖼️ Decor Idea: Hang a “Wall of Gaud” with photos or self-portraits of students in their wildest getups.
🎶 Playlist Suggestions:
“I’m Too Sexy” – Right Said Fred
“Let’s Get Loud” – Jennifer Lopez
“Can’t Stop the Feeling” – Justin Timberlake
🎉Quirky in the Workplace
A.K.A. “Yes, these sequins do reflect my work ethic—chaotic and hard to ignore.”
Originally created as an excuse to embrace bad fashion choices, Wear Something Gaudy Day is your chance to bring Big Thrift Store Energy to the office—and not just on casual Friday. It's not about looking good. It’s about looking loud. Think of it as fashion karaoke: no talent required, just confidence and questionable taste.
✨ Gaudywalk: The Office Catwalk Showdown
Turn the breakroom (or hallway, or Zoom grid) into your own Project Runway: Neon Explosion Edition.
How it works:
Everyone struts their stuff in their gaudiest outfit down the makeshift runway.
Bonus points for clashing patterns, fringe, rhinestones, and accessories that make noise when you move.
Create award categories like:
“Most Likely to Be Seen from Space”
“Clashing with Confidence”
“Accidentally Started a New Trend?”
“Did Their Earrings Just Wink at Me?”
Add a fog machine made from a humidifier and misplaced ambition for drama.
Remote twist:
If you're virtual, have everyone change their Zoom background to something equally garish—Las Vegas lights, 90s Lisa Frank, a glitter GIF on loop.
Tagline for the day:
“Subtlety is canceled. Today, we dress like our inbox feels: overwhelming and full of color.”
🎬 Movie Pick: Zoolander (2001)
Why it fits:
No movie captures the absurdity of fashion quite like Zoolander. With its over-the-top runway outfits, exaggerated personalities, and scenes that parody the high fashion world, this cult classic embodies the spirit of gaudiness. Derek Zoolander’s “Blue Steel” and Mugatu’s ridiculous designs are perfect tributes to fashion gone wild.
Gaudiest Moment: The entire “Derelicte” fashion show—homeless chic taken to glam extremes.
📺 TV Episode Pick: The Nanny – Season 1, Episode 1: “The Nanny”
Why it fits:
Fran Fine’s fashion is the very definition of gaudy—bold prints, sparkly accessories, leopard everything. The pilot episode introduces her iconic, overdone style right off the bat, setting the tone for the whole show. Her wardrobe is a masterclass in flashy, fearless, and fabulous.
Gaudiest Moment: Fran shows up at the Sheffield mansion in a leopard miniskirt and shoulder pads so sharp they could cut glass.
So go ahead, layer that Hawaiian shirt over your zebra-print leggings, toss on a tinsel wig, and strut like it’s your runway. Fashion police? We don’t know her.
After all, life’s too short to wear boring clothes—and today, boring is officially banned. 💅
🔖 Hashtags to Strut Your Stuff
#WearSomethingGaudyDay
#TooMuchIsJustRight
#GaudyAndProud
#LoudLooksGoodOnYou
#ClosetChaos
#BedazzleMeBaby
#SequinsForDays
#ThriftStoreRoyalty
#FashionablyAbsurd
#CelebrateQuirky
