Bad Sweater Guy

The Kevin F. Sherry Sweater Project phenomenon continues.

I know, I'm late to the party by just posting it now... but for those of you not hip to the bad sweater vibe, the back story: Kevin -- who many of us know from our Northwestern days -- finally decided to get rid of the 25 or so tremendously awful sweaters he had collected (and wore) during the 1980s and early 90s while living in the cold weather climes of Ohio and Chicago.

Before trashing them, though, Kevin modeled each specimen -- most of which would have even given Bill Cosby a headache -- one last time, taking photos for posterity.

Fellow "Daily Northwestern" alum Steve Lynch collected the shots and posted them on his website, where they've become a true global phenom.

Most recently, Chicago Tribune columnist Eric Zorn wrote about the collection (which just got its own web domain, badsweaterguy.com):

The Kevin F. Sherry Sweater Project couldn't have come along at a better time.

We've just entered that most perilous season of the year in men's fashion--the months in late fall when the outdoor chill inspires us to go to our closet shelves and bring down our collection of boldly patterned wool, cotton and acrylic sweaters.

The dazzling geometry! The arresting combinations of colors!

They display the same whims of our inner peacock seen on our loudest neckties, but on the dangerously larger canvas of our torsos.

We wear them to social events, ballgames and even the office, thinking we're quite snappy even as our friends whisper behind our backs, "Hey, I thought `The Cosby Show' went off the air in 1992."

As Zorn reports, Kevin has decided not to throw the sweaters out after all (at least, for now) as he contemplates creating a Bad Sweater coffeetable book.