Box vs Knife Pleats

[figheadair]

I just discovered that the US Tartan Museum is located in Franklin NC.

https://scottishtartansmuseum.org/

On their site, they offer 3 kilt types. One of which is a box pleat, which they state was the accepted standard for kilts "from the late 18th century till the middle of the 19th century", when today's knife pleats took over. Its not clear why they offer this single type of "historic" kilt and no others.

I was only surprised because I have not seen that posted here, and there are plenty of Kilt Historians active on our forum.

I was curious about this change in tradition. Also found it curious that box pleating is what Pakistani kilts use. They're obviously easier to sew and use less material, which is why I presumed Pakistanis use it. I did not know there was potentially a historic tie-in as well.

The original box pleated kilt, and what the military call a box pleat are different. The four-yard kilt had an even, broad box-pleat i.e. the depth of the pleat was the same on both sides. It was the standard pleating from c.1780-30/40. This one dates to c.1800 and is pleated randomly.



Military kilts of the time were box-pleated to stripe. This 92nd (Gordon) kilt dates to 1796.



Some time between 1830-40 the amount of material in civilian kilts increased to around 5 yards. In order to accommodate the extra material the pleats were narrowed and slightly overlapped. Bob Martin referred to this style as a box-knife pleat because it was a sort of interim or transitional style. It it this style that was retained by some military regiments such as the Black Watch, Cameron Highlanders, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders etc. This pleating was also to stripe.



It is said that the 92nd (Gordons) never adopted this transitional form and moved directly to the (modern) knife pleat around 1850-60. box-knife pleats continued to be the preferred form for both civilian and military kilts until c.1880 when the first knife-pleated civilian kilts appeared. These were still pleated to stripe. Pleating to sett seems to have come in around 1890-1900.