Ladies Kilts

[JimB]

Ok, I know this has probably been asked before but I've done a search and can't find it.
Regarding ladies kilts, do the pleats go in the regular way or are they reversed?
I'm not talking about a kilted skirt but a regular kilt as worn by a woman.
Thanks!!

[Canuck]

Ok, I know this has probably been asked before but I've done a search and can't find it.
Regarding ladies kilts, do the pleats go in the regular way or are they reversed?
I'm not talking about a kilted skirt but a regular kilt as worn by a woman.
Thanks!!

There are two schools of thought on this but I will go with the one that is meant for the European market. The pleats and closure is identical for a mans kilt, and believe it or not a kilted skirt or hostess skirt the same. For the North American market it may be different.
I have 10 examples from my mother-in-laws collection all closing left over right.

[Barb T]

A trad kilt made for a woman (piper or Highland dancer) is made exactly the same as it is for a man because it's a proper kilt meant to conform to the uniform standards of either a pipe band or the Highland dance rules. Just has more shape, if it fits properly. Fringe edge at the right hip.

Most kilt skirts that I've seen (which are not kilts and are not made with the same construction techniques, amount of fabric, etc.) most commonly have the fringe edge at the left hip.

Barb

[Pleater]

If it is a kilt - then it is a kilt - in my book anyway, and should conform to the handedness of the standard garment.

A kimono for instance, is almost always folded kiltwise, and only folded the other way on corpses.

As I sometimes wear a kimono with a kilt it would look rather odd to have them closing on different sides.

There might be a visual conflict if a kilt was to be worn as part of a suit with a double brested closing - though on most women it would not be well proportioned in the first place so might never, with due consideration, ever be done.

If making a kilt for another woman I'd make the pleats as standard, unless she wanted them to point the other way, and similarly do the apron on the left side, to go over to the right, unless it was wanted the other way.

I make clothes and long ago learned that the customer dictates the style, the colour and the time scale. They pay for it, so they get to chose.

[Phil]

Women don't wear kilts and if they do they are made the same as men's kilts ( that is if they are proper kilts and not just skirts). As Barb says it is really only female Highland dancers and pipers that wear a kilt anything else you see will be a skirt.

[The F-H.C.A.G.]

Women other than Highland dancers and pipe band members DO wear kilts, although there are those that do not approve of this. If it is a kilt, the pleats point towards the right (that is, if you are standing behind someone wearing a kilt, the edges of the pleats are on the right) and the apron edge (fringed or not) is on the right as well. If it is a skirt, pretty much anything goes, but traditionally, the apron opens on the left rather than the right. For symmetry's sake, I would think that if the apron opens on the left, the pleats should point to the left, but I have one skirt that goes the other way as well.

Be well,