Elastic pleat-keepers in military kilts

[Tobus]

I've seen this mentioned before, but figured I'd post it for discussion and general info. I recently purchased an ex-military (Seaforth - Queen's Own Highlanders) kilt from a fellow board member. This is a military box-pleat kilt in MacKenzie tartan, pleated to the white line in the usual fashion, made by Hector Russell and dated 1993, making it one of the last kilts of the QOH era. It's a wonderful kilt, and exactly what I had been pining for.



First, a photo of the selvedge end to show the pleats. As recently discussed, this pleating style is the typical military box-pleat, or a deep asymmetrical box pleat. The top of the 'box', or the exposed part of the pleat, is about 5/8" wide, and the inner portion of each pleat overlaps about 2-1/2 pleats. For reference, the sett size is about 11-1/4", and each pleat is a half-sett (5-5/8") of cloth.



On the inside of the kilt, about 5" up from the selvedge, there is an elastic band sewn into the pleated portion of the kilt (roughly 25" across the back).



Looking more closely, the elastic is stitched to every 2nd pleat (i.e. it skips a pleat between stitch lines), and is made so that the elastic does not lay flat. This allows the pleats to swish a little and open up whilst walking, before the elastic even starts to develop tension. And even when it does start to stretch, it still allows the pleats to move even further.



As I recall, these elastic bands were added to help keep the pleats in order, since this kilt would mainly have been worn for ceremonial/dress/parade/display events. The elastic helps keep a stray wind from blowing the pleats up, but also helps return all the pleats to their position. My question to the experts here is whether the elastic band was put on there by the maker, or if it was added by the person who wore it.

I'm considering removing the elastic from this kilt, since I prefer the pleats to be more 'free'. I have to believe that even though the elastic has plenty of slack, it's still inhibiting the swish potential. But I think I'm going to wear it several times first before making that decision.