In the UK, as in other armies, officers were originally obvious only by their standards that accompanied them and by their relative finery. The former eventually developed into the colours of the regiments themselves. The latter gradually developed into a more or less uniform system of lace and gold/silver bullion on shoulders, cuffs and collars. This worked reasonably well in barracks, less well in the field where such fripperies suffered badly from wet and muck. There was also a lack of consensus amongst the regimental commanders as to what fripperies were appropriate to which ranks. It wasn't until 1760 that a Royal Clothing Warrant attempted to bring order and 1810 before crowns and stars were introduced and then only for regimental officers, generals sticking with lace until after the Crimean War.