Sometimes it happens...Something completely arbitrary gives insight into something else. I was talking to my wife's brother in India the other day, and while we were talking, he noted that he could see the Sadarji (Thats actually the proper term for Sikh) across the street on his porch wrapping his turban and laughing because "He can't get his pleats right". That just kept buzzing in my head for some reason. Living in Nor-Cal, we have probably the largest grouping of Sadarjis in America, so you see them quite often. Anyway, I saw a huge family of them at the target today, and right then I remembered about the pleating. I NEVER have paid attention to the turban, and I thought it was a generic thing that was tied the same way by all. But as I studied them, I noticed that each one of the men's turbans had their own unique style of wrapping it. All of them were wrapped in a pleated style, but each one had a little different way of doing it, so none of them looked alike. Here's a link for just a few of the styles hat you can do if you're having a hard time understanding this up to this point-

http://www.sikhnet.com/pages/tyingturbans

OK-My point. I have seen NUMEROUS paintings and such of belted plaids that had different styles of pleating. I often asked myself, "Why is this guys kilt pleated all the way around", "Why does this highlander have his apron covering only half the front", etc. Sadarjis hand tie their turbans everyday, and thus unique ways and styles that appeal to the wearer are worn that may not be the same as another wearer. Scots, wearing belted plaids must have also had a fan of different pleating styles. A garment that is hand pleated daily will surely have different styles and fads amongst the many....Too bad we only see the general way of wearing a belted plaid (Lying down on a bed of pleats, sliding the belt through and then wrapping and belting). I would have loved to see the many styles that people employed back in the day......

Sorry if this post seemed strange...Just something that got me thinking.