When it comes to style, there’s a growing phenomenon related to it that illustrates that it might be an endangered species due to the shabby style of dress that’s slowly overwhelming culture along with high style. Can we stave off the attack of slovenliness? Maybe and maybe not. It seems we’re deliberately dressing shabbily, to the point where an eager Salvation Army worker tries to drag us to a halfway house when he sees us, unfortunately.

Many fashion experts are at a loss to pinpoint when the move from a sense of style and culture began to turn into a headlong rush into dressing like somebody who grew up on a canal barge first occurred. But if smell is any indication, the loss of the ability to put on a bit of eau de parfum spray in order to avoid at least smelling like week-old fish seems to have completely deserted many people.

Naturally, it has to be accepted that there is always going to be rebellion among younger people, especially. This is illustrated whenever a person is asked for the time. Younger people would pull out a cellular phone to give the questioner the time while older people — men especially — would look down at their men’s sport watch, for example, to give the time. Why younger people prefer whipping out a phone to tell the time may cause some head scratching at first.

Partly, this phenomenon is due to people wanting to show off their very stylish and relatively expensive electronic wonders that can not only help facilitate a conversation but also give the weather and the time in 27 million time zones and dimensions. But if one stops for a minute — verified on a wristwatch, naturally — one would realize that just looking at the watch face is far more convenient.

Another area that’s been hit hard lately is women’s fashions. Put aside, for a moment, the Paris runways, where nearly-anorexic models parade about in getups that would put a space alien to shame, and think about something as simple as women’s brown boots. For sure, there are still boots out there being worn by women, though they probably look more like something a US Marine would wear rather than elegant and stylish footwear for a lady.

It would seem that the modern age has helped to drive much of this and that certain generations of people may be reacting to all of the technology that hits them from all sides in a way that almost requires them to dismiss timeless and classic style. This goes even for something as simple as a wristwatch, which is in a veritable Texas cage match with a cell phone for the right to tell a person what time of day it is.

Back in the ‘old days, ‘ when a wristwatch was designed to tell the time and maybe give the date, nobody would’ve thought anything about picking up the telephone and punching in a few numbers to get the time if the wristwatch was not available. However, finding anybody that really remembers those days — caught up as they are in the idea that they’ll soon be traveling on some sort of spaceship to parts unknown — is probably going to be extremely difficult in the next few years.