Apologies and Excuses for duff information
Where I have used dates they are purely based upon evidence I have seen. Sometimes that evidence is sound other times it is flimsy.
Some are guesses and all are opinions. I have jumped to wrong conclusions. I have presumed too much.
Please do not trust any dates or facts I have given. I give all information in good faith as a guide only.
At best I would hope that what I offer might be a pointer to help you progress towards your goal.
At this date thousands of people are still alive who remember clearly the subjects I am writing about.
It is either a very brave or very foolish thing to write about a subject from my position
when there are so many eyewitnesses to correct my mistakes.
I could of course have written on the subject of Ancient Roman fashion knowing there are no living persons to criticise me. There would only be other scholars looking at the same archives.
In my view it is better to put ideas forward however flimsy my evidence is. Future generations may or not thank me for for my endevours.
Appeal for corrections
This publication would have no value if later editions were not corrected. You cannot hurt my feelings by telling me I am giving out duff info.
There will be odd anomalies to every fashion trend I have identified. What we are looking for are glaring errors or wholesale shifts in dates.
We need to be able to say that a photograph in which this item of fashion appears was most likely taken between these dates.
Take for example, the large butterfly hair bow: I have said that this item was a fashion of the Great War. I have one stray example dated 1900 and another dated 1926 but over 200 dated between 1913 and 1918.
Should we say that a photograph of a butterfly bow (my name for them) is likely to date from between 1900 and 1926.
or do we say as I have done, the Great War era ?.........
