Piperdbh, that's kind of what I was thinking; you only need a few pleats for the functionality of the kilt. If you reduce the number of pleats, it could make the kilt easier to build, as Whidbey78 points out.

Alan, thanks for the input on the X-Kilt. As you say, swish isn't everything. I suppose if you are hiking, or in my case gardening, you don't really worry so much about some of the peacock fashion issues.

I would think wide box pleats would be well suited for putting on large cargo pockets. Perhaps the side/front, box pleats of a five pleat kilt could be completely covered by a large pocket at the bottom, and smaller pockets on up to the hip.

My kilt doesn't have any pockets, but my work belt/pouch does. I've mostly been thinking of detachable, external pockets with loops and rings either put on the kilt or on a belt for the kilt. That gets into sewing I can do on my own.