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This summer, when you spot yet another New Yorker vamping around in a pair of perfectly round glasses these are the people you should blame for turning our city into a perpetual Harry Potter lookalike contest: Malian photographer Malick Sidibé, John Lennon and the cast of Hair. At least those are the suspects Eric Wilson IDs in a typically absurdist, slightly loveable Styles section story about why Marc Jacobs, Proenza Schouler, Ralph Lauren, Zegna, Lanvin and others have suddenly started pushing sunglasses your dad thought were cool circa 1968.

Apparently, after Sidibé was presented with a lifetime achievement award at the Venice Biennale in 2007, his photographs, full of the offending sunglasses, became extremely popular with the shade designing set. (Yoko Ono just took home a lifetime achievement award at the Biennale, which may not bode well for this trend's quick evaporation, although she accepted the award wearing square glasses, so you never know.) Around the same time, a pair of John Lennon's glasses went to auction, earning some serious cash, and the fifth Harry Potter film came out. (Wilson doesn't mention the boy wizard as an influence—he's a little lowbrow for all these sophisticated fashion people, perhaps.) Then the Broadway version of Hair was previewed for the Costume Institute. Suddenly, Lady Gaga and your neighbor are wearing miniature portholes over their eyes. Yay, fashion!

Why Round Sunglasses? A Style Investigation [NYT]
Photos: Round Specs Invade the Streets from Brisbane to Brooklyn [R29]