Texts from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries describe how cleverly-cut garments or unique possessions make a character distinctive, and even offer advice on how to look attractive on a budget or gain enough spending money to shop for oneself. Such descriptions suggest fashion's presence, yet accepted notions date the birth of Western Fashion to the mid-fourteenth-century revolution in men's clothing styles. A fashion system must have been present prior to this "revolution" in styles to facilitate such changes, and abundant evidence for the existence of such a system is cogently set out in this study.