Bad Crafts: Rick rack

This isn't so much a "bad craft" as it is a "bad craft supply." What is rick rack FOR? Who uses it? And why is there always so much of it at the crafts store?

Based on my extremely scientific survey (I asked a couple of friends) no one in the entire world has ever used rick rack for crafting. In fact, I could only find one person who had ever used rick rack in any capacity. She is a professional dog breeder who uses it as collars for her newborn puppies to color-code them and keep them straight. The stretchiness, low cost, and wide variety of colors make it ideal for this purpose.

Historically, rick rack was used for ????? Seriously I do not even know. I went searching and I found some examples of shirts which had decorative rick rack sewn around the cuffs, like the rank markings on a Starfleet uniform. I also found a peasant-style skirt which had rick rack sewn around it in a decorative fashion. (It was pretty awful. I won't link to it, because I don't like to insult individual crafters.)

And yet, unlike so many other forgotten and unused craft supplies, craft stores are full of this stuff. The last time I was at a big box craft store browsing the sewing section, they had rick rack in at least two dozen colors.

I'm straining to even come up with a way in which you could use an elasticized zig zag fabric ribbon. I did find this cute tutorial for how to make a rose out of rick rack. It's pretty neat, but so what? You can literally make a rose out of a radish.

Please, I am serious about this: can anyone justify the existence of rick rack? Have you ever used it, or seen it used? (And did it work, or was it awful?)

Image courtesy Flickr/Follow The White Bunny