Lemondrop

In what's either an actual trend or an advance warning, New York magazine reports that The Cosby Sweater is making a comeback.

If you're too young to remember The Cos, we're talking chunky-knit sweaters with defining features like nauseating color combos (teal and peach!) and patterns best described with words like "whimsical" or "themed." Neon buttons were frequently incorporated.

This isn't an ironic fashion statement. This is sartorial disorder. By placing The Cosby Sweater in the time-space continuum of Questionable Sweaters, we see that this is the latest in an alarming trend -- a trend of Questionable Sweaters -- that deserves further investigation.

The chronology of Questionable Sweaters

Twin Set: With matchy-matchy color schemes and the need for words like "shell" and "cardigan," donning a twin set makes wearers look like the type to iron their jeans, argue the difference between "eggshell" and "ecru," and use words like tasteful.

Shrug: Like an appendix, the shrug serves no real purpose -- other than trading the contents of one's wallet for what's basically an expensive decoration for shoulder blades.

Holiday Sweater: These knitted dioramas depicting festive holiday scenes have progressed to the point where it's now possible to buy a sweater that requires a battery pack. If it lights up, has pompoms or tells people, "Season's Greetings!" before you've even opened your mouth, toss it. Please.

Grandpa Cardigan: Why stop here? Break out the mom jeans, throw in some tube socks and call it pretty.

And now, of course, it's The Cosby Sweater. We call it a questionable trend because it begs just that -- a question. We're not sure what we think, so please help us figure it out. Click through this gallery of the season's best throwbacks and let us know what you think -- are the sweaters ugly or amazing? Then, check out more curious trends at Stylelist.