Lately I've been seeing more

Lately I've been seeing more and more people wearing ugly sunglasses from the 70's. It's funny when seen in context, but looks dumb in the year 2001.

Who came up with the idea of wearing the ugliest, most useless sunglasses possible? Can it be traced back to a lost bet or a dare among two fashion plates?

Even when viewed just on the merits of design, they fail miserably. They aren't improved versions of previous designs. A lot of snowboarding-inspired designs (dragon and blackflys come to mind) of the past several years borrow heavily from 60's surfer specs (Dustin Hoffman's character in The Graduate sports a pair when he's floating around the pool), but these ugly 70's designs are just straight copies. When I was in Manhattan a couple weeks back, I couldn't help but notice them on every tenth person I saw walking down the street. Light pink lenses, baby blue, and smoked brown gradient lenses were everywhere I looked.

Ick. Wake me when this trend is over.