The word tawdry means things that are cheap or gaudy or both!The original meaning of the word was very different.

Tawdry is an abbreviation of St. Audrey. The name was then given to the silk lace worn around the neck in Middle Ages as Audrey Lace.

The saint died in 679 A.D of a throat tumor. She blamed the vanity of women who wore pretty necklaces and said that their vanity caused these diseases.

The poor country girls who could not afford the real silk lace had to settle for their cheap substitutes.
Thus the word which was the name of a saint came to denote a silk lace and was further degraded to denote the cheap and gaudy substitutes.