Pleats tied to formality?

[usonian]

I am by no means a highland dress authority but it would never in a million years have occurred to me to think that alternating stripes (or any pleat style) would be "too formal" with a casual outfit, and I'd be pretty surprised if any of the rabble made such a proclamation! There have been plenty of discussions about the limitations of trying to dress up casual/low yardage kilts, but I've always thought the consensus is that an 8 yard, 16oz kilt is good for all occasions. (See Panache's One Kilt, Ten Looks guide.)

(Also, I may be thinking of the wrong tartan but pleating to the red stripe only might be a logistical issue with Hunting Stewart because of the large sett; you'd wind up with extremely deep pleats and fewer of them - hopefully an actual kiltmaker will be along to correct me if I'm wrong about that part.)