What is this kilt pleated to?

[Carlo]

My first guess was that it is a "cheap" kilt from far away, but since it claims to be scottish, Ken's guess seems plausible to me.

Perhaps it was pleated such that each pleat is the same consistent depth in inches, regardless of where the folds were placed, relative to the vertical stripes of the sett.

[Dixiecat]

It's actually pleated very nicely and if you concentrate your inspection of only the fell area, as the kilt is very creased and not pressed well even before that, you'll see that the pleating pattern, while not perfectly to sett is symmetrical with the center back being the pivot. As noted by a previous poster, the sett is quite large so I imagine the kiltmaker had to approximate the sett and did so very skilfully as it's all done perfectly between the two buckles.

[BCAC]

It's actually pleated very nicely and if you concentrate your inspection of only the fell area, as the kilt is very creased and not pressed well even before that, you'll see that the pleating pattern, while not perfectly to sett is symmetrical with the center back being the pivot. As noted by a previous poster, the sett is quite large so I imagine the kiltmaker had to approximate the sett and did so very skilfully as it's all done perfectly between the two buckles.

It seems to me to be a reasonable attempt which would look miles better if it was pressed but the big vertical black stripe is not centred between the buckles, unfortunately.

[OC Richard]

Yes the sett isn't followed very accurately.

The thing that really jumps out is the pair of wide dark blue stripes (a bold and important element of the sett) that doesn't appear in the pleating at all.

Seems that they more or less invented a new sett for the pleating... the pleating seems to have a certain consistency, but isn't the same as the woven sett.

[Dixiecat]

Ok, perhaps it's not pleated 'perfectly' between the two buckles, but it's not far off.
The back stripe IS the center back and while the pleating is not exact to the sett, the approximation has been done very well. I bet it would look fantastic when rebasted and pressed properly.

The sett is very large, in fact we can't even see the entire sett in the front of the kilt! I make it to be ABCDADCB, but can't confirm because we can't see the last element. For the sake of symmetry it's most likely B. Goodness, the more I look at it, the more I'm admiring the skill of the kiltmaker.

Has anyone confirmed the tartan yet?

[unixken]

In my previous response, I hadn't realized the sett was so large. After going back and looking at the apron on this, I was reminded of my Aberdeen District 5yd casual, and the discussion we'd had about the way it was pleated (neither to the sett, nor to the stripe.) The Aberdeen District, in 16oz Locharron fabric, has a nearly 23" sett size. I posted photos of my kilt in this post.

In post #16 of that thread, Matt Newsome explained what we were seeing. I've since picked up a copy of the Bob Martin booklet he referred to, and sure enough, I concur with Matt's appraisal. Perhaps the same thing is going on with the kilt at the start of this thread.