Kilt with no hair canvas

[M. A. C. Newsome]

It looks to me that there might have been some canvas in the past but was removed to cut out the pleats and not replaced.

Could be. But then that would mean that the original kilt maker made the kilt without cutting out any of the pleats above the hip line, which for an 8 yard kilt like this would have been equally as unusual as making it with no reinforcing canvas! Curiouser and curiouser....