Kelly Ripa took over as co-host of “Live!” back in 2001, and she’s been helping fans start their mornings with laughter ever since. Ripa has hosted over 3,700 episodes over the course of over two decades. And, that means that she has had to sport quite a few outfits on the air. Ripa has had many fashion hits while in the public eye, but being in the spotlight as much as she is means that the occasional fashion miss is basically inevitable. Ripa has worn her fair share of inappropriate outfits over the years, and we’re taking a trip down bad fashion memory lane.
From wearing see-through dresses on red carpets to having wardrobe malfunctions on national television, while some of Ripa’s fashion mistakes haven’t been entirely her fault, she does get the blame for others. And, we’re not the first fashion fans to critique Ripa’s wardrobe. In a 2019 interview with People, Ripa opened up about her then-18-year-old daughter Lola Consuelos’ opinions on her style. “She just feels that what I wear is embarrassing and awful, but then I think that means that I’ve gotten something right,” she said, adding, “I don’t think your teenage daughters should like what you’re wearing.”
So, even if her daughter disapproves of her outfit mishaps, Ripa knows that when it comes to fashion, you can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs. Or, in her case, you can’t have great style without occasionally wearing pants that are way, way too tight.
Her totally see-through Oscars dress
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We’ve gotta hand it to Kelly Ripa — for most of us, walking the Oscars red carpet with our underwear exposed sounds like a nightmare we might wake up from drenched in sweat. But, in 2023, Ripa actually did this as a fashion statement. Not only was her floor-length dress entirely sheer, but she had particularly skimpy underwear on underneath. And, to make this gown even more revealing, it had an extremely low, open back.
The high neckline and full coverage in front certainly softened the blow of this dress’ sheerness and made it a little less over-the-top than it could have been. Yet, the Academy Awards is one of Hollywood’s fanciest red carpets, and an entirely sheer dress just felt like a bit much for this occasion. Ripa certainly doesn’t look bad in this daring ensemble, but it still managed to be one of her more inappropriate looks over the years — and at a very prestigious event, no less.
The wardrobe emergency that almost delayed the show
Access Hollywood/YouTube
In 2023, Kelly Ripa hit the stage one morning looking a bit frazzled as she scrambled to tie the bow on the front of her hot pink dress. “I had a small wardrobe emergency backstage,” the host admitted (via Access Hollywood), adding, “It was very exciting; I almost did not walk out here.” It was unclear exactly what the “wardrobe emergency” was, but it certainly seemed to be cause for alarm, since she almost left her cohost hubby, Mark Consuelos, to head out onstage by himself.
Interestingly, this wasn’t the first time Ripa wore this particular dress on the show, and it caused an issue the first time, too. On the previous episode, which aired just weeks prior, Ripa was dancing with Consuelos during one segment, and she felt her dress rip. It turned out to be a tie around the waist, which she proceeded to rip off. Yet, the dress managed to appear on stage on the later episode in the wake of the wardrobe emergency. It’s possible that she just had this dress on hand to throw on last minute when another ensemble didn’t work. That said, if this pink dress caused the wardrobe malfunction on both occasions, it’s probably best to put this clearly cursed frock into retirement.
Her Miley Cyrus Halloween costume
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We love a celeb who goes all out for Halloween, and Kelly Ripa certainly falls into this category. Not only does she never shy away from donning an elaborate costume, but she also has a knack for choosing costumes that honor huge pop-culture moments. From Katy Perry’s famous Super Bowl performance to Jennifer Coolidge’s iconic character in “The White Lotus,” Ripa clearly uses the pop-culture knowledge being a major talkshow host gives you to think of on-point costumes.
Back in 2013, Miley Cyrus’ wacky VMAs performance alongside Robin Thicke and many, many teddy bears was a truly show-stopping pop culture event. Yet, Ripa’s costume definitely veered into inappropriate territory for a morning talkshow. For the “Live’s Best Halloween Show Ever” episode, Ripa and then-cohost Michael Strahan sported many costumes. One of those costumes was Cyrus’ super-short mouse ensemble and Thicke’s striped suit, respectively. Just like Cyrus, herself, Ripa was just a slight turn away from exposing her butt to the audience. And, if you’re thinking — “hey — at least she didn’t go with Cyrus’ flesh-colored two-piece,” you may want to think again. She also sported that outfit, and she even twerked in it.
When she flashed her underwear to the world
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We simply cannot list Kelly Ripa’s most inappropriate outfits without discussing the time when she exposed her brightly colored underwear on national television. Though, in her defense, this surely wasn’t the outfit she had planned. In 2021, Ripa switched from the host chair to the guest chair when she visited “The Talk.” She reminisced about when the talk show’s then-cohost, Carrie Ann Inaba, guest hosted on “Live! with Kelly” back in 2012. Inaba, who is originally from Honolulu, Hawaii joined her pal, Ripa, in Ko Olina, Hawaii to broadcast live from Aulani, a Disney Resort & Spa.
While heading to Hawaii with your friend may seem like the ultimate work trip, Ripa’s outfit of choice for the episode made the experience less-than-perfect when it didn’t fare well. “We were on set, and because [Inaba] knows Hawaii so well, she knows that it gets breezy there. I just look at the temperature, like, ‘Oh it’s 97 degrees I better wear this dress made out of paper mache,'” Ripa explained on “The Talk” (per Hello!). Ripa’s short, lightweight dress was no match for the strong breeze and the cooking segment that kept her hands too full to keep her skirt down. Luckily, while she may have been embarrassed to let her hot pink underwear out for the world to see at the time, Ripa clearly found the mishap hilarious in hindsight.
Her pants that were so tight, her hands got stuck in the pockets
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Back in 2020, Kelly Ripa hit the “Live with Kelly and Ryan” stage in a simple pair of black pants and a long-sleeved red top. Without knowing the backstory of this ensemble, it looks anything but inappropriate for daytime TV. Yet, a backstage video that was posted to Instagram reveals that these pants were not, in fact, an ideal article of clothing for Ripa — especially when she was about to sit down for a full hour-long episode.
In the video, Ripa has her hands in her pockets as she and her then-cohost Ryan Seacrest headed to the stage. “My hands are stuck in my pockets, because my pants are too tight,” Ripa explained. She also noted to Seacrest just how dire the situation surrounding these pants really was. “Getting them on … let’s pray that they don’t tear,” she said.
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As far as we know, the pants did not, in fact, tear. Yet, watching Ripa walk from backstage to her cohost chair shows just how uncomfortable those pants really were. Like any good cohost, Seacrest assured Ripa that despite their tight fit, “I like the trousers; they’re a nice cut.” Still, anyone who’s ever worn too-tight pants before can attest that a poor fit like this should make a pair of pants a no-go. And, we can only imagine how much worse sitting still in front of a live studio audience would make this feeling.
