How Many Years in the Switch from Box to Knife Pleat?

[M. A. C. Newsome]

When John speaks of "cheating the pleats" he is describing a way of pleating to the sett without necessarily having to include a full repeat of the sett in each and every pleat.

As this is a technique used when pleating certain tartans with a large repeat to the sett, and pleating to the sett did not come about until the very end of the nineteenth century, therefore there are no nineteenth century examples (that I am aware of) of kilts pleated this way.

In terms of pleating to the stripe, I suppose one could apply the same term to cases where a kilt was pleated to a stripe that repeated more than once per sett repeat. In this case there are many different examples of Black Watch tartan kilts (and any sett based on Black Watch) where the stripe pleated to is repeated twice per sett so that every pleat contains only half of the sett repeat.

Ordinarily, in a kilt pleated to stripe, each pleat would contain a single repeat of the sett.

[Bugbear]

For the same reason as they perpetuated knife-pleated to the stripe: Economics. It takes much less fabric to pleat Black Watch, Gordon, Hunting Stewart, or Mackenzie to the stripe than to the sett. If you're making many kilts at once, the savings would add up quickly.

Not really. Very few so-called 'eight yard' military kilts contain eight yards. With the tartans I mentioned only half of the sett is used per pleat. And, yes, uniformity was also a consideration.

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You are clearly stating this is a technique used in pleating to the stripe.
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Concerning the original box-pleated military kilts, I would agree that it was done for uniformity and nothing more. I'm suggesting that the military chose not to adopt the later trend of pleating to the sett for both uniformity and economics.

Sure, if a full repeat is used per pleat than the savings are nominal, maybe only 20 inches or so worth of cloth. However, by only using a half repeat per pleat the saving is considerable.

Suppose two kilts are being made. Both are made to the measurements of 33" Waist and 39" Hips" (My own measurements! ) Both are made from 18 oz. cloth in Black Watch which has an approximate repeat of 13 1/2 inches. Both kilts will also have 27 pleats. Assuming one didn't "cheat the pleats", pleating to the sett using a full repeat per pleat would use roughly 12.5 yards. (A ridiculous number to be sure, and anyone would definitely cheat the pleats.) The second kilt, pleated to the stripe, using only half repeats per pleat would only require about 6.5 yards. So, no, in this the case the savings are quite considerable.

******
You seem to compare this technique to "cheating the pleats," which is where I got the term, but describe it as using half the repeat. So- I guess we could call it half repeat pleating, instead?

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Matt,

Yes, the twelve-and-a-half yard monster I suggested is just a hypothetical example. (Wouldn't that be fun to make? ) Anyone who wanted a kilt pleated to the sett using such a large pattern (like Black Watch) would realistically have to settle for one of two options:

1) Fewer pleats (say fifteen or seventeen) with a wider reveal but uniform depth throughout the kilt.

2) "Cheating the Pleats". This would be used to maintain the high number of pleats (27) I suggested in my example. However, some elements in the tartan don't repeat themselves so there would not be a uniformity of pleat depth. Every few pleats would require using the full repeat of the sett. Sure, this would drastically reduce the kilt's overall yardage from the aforementioned twelve-and-a-half yards, but you would still need about eight yards to accomplish this. Eight yards is still a lot more than six-and-a-half, especially when dealing with many kilts being made from the same bolt of tartan.

The army is nothing if not frugal and in situations like the Great War, where there was a high 'turnover' of kilts, economy of cloth would become an issue fairly quickly. Almost every detail of a military kilt indicates economy of cloth: no apron fringe, small apron facings, non-tartan waistbands and buckle tabs. (The latter two also make alteration easier.)

Yes, I've made traditional box-pleated and low-yardage knife-pleated kilts to the sett as well, but I'm referring to military kilts that 'require' a high number of pleats. So I still maintain that it was done for both tradition and economics.

******
Ok, my question, now that I have a better term, are there any kilts from that time period that have been pleated with half repeats? We know they were all pleated to the stripe. Or could this be a newer innovation being used in kilt construction?
******

When John speaks of "cheating the pleats" he is describing a way of pleating to the sett without necessarily having to include a full repeat of the sett in each and every pleat.

As this is a technique used when pleating certain tartans with a large repeat to the sett, and pleating to the sett did not come about until the very end of the nineteenth century, therefore there are no nineteenth century examples (that I am aware of) of kilts pleated this way.

In terms of pleating to the stripe, I suppose one could apply the same term to cases where a kilt was pleated to a stripe that repeated more than once per sett repeat. In this case there are many different examples of Black Watch tartan kilts (and any sett based on Black Watch) where the stripe pleated to is repeated twice per sett so that every pleat contains only half of the sett repeat.

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I understand what you are saying. Here is where John is saying something different from you.

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Ordinarily, in a kilt pleated to stripe, each pleat would contain a single repeat of the sett.

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I wanted to know if John knew of any period kilts that had his "half repeat" technique, or if he was basing this only on his modern training in kilt making.
Well, unless he's a couple hundred years old or something like that...
I apologize.

[M. A. C. Newsome]

Yes, all of the early kilts I have seen which have been made from Black Watch, or a Black Watch variant and pleated to stripe, have used the half repeat, as John describes. This includes the earliest documented tailored kilt, a Gordon regimental kilt c. 1796 (box pleated, from 3 yards, 2" of cloth), a Seaforth kilt (MacKenzie tartan) from the same time period, also box pleated, from 3 yards, 2" of cloth, on up to kilts in the latter part of the nineteenth century.

This is the standard way in which Black Watch based tartans are pleated to the stripe.

(A lot of these early kilts are documented in All About Your Kilt by Bob Martin).

[Bugbear]

Thanks. Sorry I had the terms mixed up.

[Bugbear]

That was actually useful, to me, going through all that discussion. It drove home that pleating to the sett is quite a change in itself, and only came about at the end of the changes from box to knife pleating. Sounds like a little over a hundred years ago, yet pleating to the sett seems to have become regarded as traditional for civilian kilts.

It leaves me wondering if there have been more or fewer changes in Highland attire over the last hundred years than in the eighteen-hundreds?

I almost want to say there have been fewer changes.

[M. A. C. Newsome]

If you look at the change in the Scottish kilt from 1800 to 1900, and compare that to the change in the same garment from 1900-2000, then yes, the nineteenth century saw far more changes. Note I'm limiting this to the traditional Scottish kilt, excluding the modern "contemporary kilt" phenomena such as Utilikilt, which I would consider outside of the Scottish tradition.

[Bugbear]

Yes, I understand on the modern/contemporary kilts: a different beast.

Going by some of the things The Wizard of BC has posted, I have the impression that the shorter two- inch rises and internal tailoring like hair canvas and cutting away of the fell area are fairly new innovations, as well. He was describing the construction of military kilts, rather than civilian, though.

[OC Richard]

Actually, in the very early 20th century, I would make the argument that pleating to the sett was not all that common. Apparently it was just starting to come into vogue. In 1901, Ruaraidh Stuart Erskine wrote in The Kilt and How to Wear it about a recent novel form of pleating, the name of which he did not know, but he described it as "revealing the whole tartan pattern." He speaks of it as a very new thing, just starting to come into fashion.

Very interesting!

But when that pleating pattern came in, it appears to have quickly become the norm.

I'm just now looking through my vintage catalogues:

Lawrie (no date). Kilt pleating is not mentioned. Only one illustration shows a kilt's rear. It is signed, and dated 1926, and shows a Royal Stewart kilt pleated to the tartan.

Anderson 1936. "The kilt is usually pleated to show all round the 'sett' or design." The rears of two kilts are illustrated (Black Watch and Fraser), both pleated to the tartan.

Paisley 1936. Kilt pleating is not mentioned. Only one illustration shows a kilt's rear, an Anderson kilt pleated to two alternating locations. (Interesting, in that the MacDonald kilts worn in the Canadian military are pleated this way.)

When I started wearing kilts, back in the 70s, I think the only kilts pleated to the line I saw were in the military. In the last 20 years or so pleating to the line has got more popular with civilian pipe bands, so that nowadays it's approaching 50/50. It's a common issue: there are a load of MacDonald of the Isles Hunting kilts up on Ebay now, which a pipe band ordered pleated to the line but the kiltmaker made them all to the tartan. And you sometimes see a mix of the two pleating styles within the same band.

[Bugbear]

Thanks for posting about those, OC Richard.