Box pleats

[Tobus]

Anyway my main thoughts are that for military service a garnment needs a degree of neatness & this is only achievable with a degree of prior measurement and preparation which a regimental tailor would have the opportunity to do, but a soldier in the field would struggle to get bang on every time in a hurry.

Also for tactical reasons it is far easier & quicker to quickly put on a phillabeg than to arrange a llose plaid & then go through the additional hassle of securing the top part of the great plaid.

I'll preface my reply by admitting I am no historian, and I posit these comments more as questions than retorts:

Is it really accurate to think of these early military kilts as "uniforms" by today's standards where neatness would be important? The notion of crisp uniforms that are neatly tailored and properly arranged is a modern concept. The British Army was one of the pioneers of uniform standards, I'll admit, but in the pre-1750 timeframe we're talking about, would that line of thinking really apply to the early Highland militia-types like the Black Watch? From the little I know of it, there wasn't exactly a strong standard of military discipline, nor was there any sort of bureaucratic regulation of their dress. They were raised by local nobles, and were not "regulars" of any army. I've read that these guys were pretty rough, unruly, undisciplined, and often little better than hired thugs (in terms of the tactics they used and the authority they claimed). In other words, I haven't seen much evidence that the pre-Culloden Black Watch was any sort of organised military unit to which we could apply the logic of modern or even contemporary British uniform standards. And again, I ask it as a question.

Secondly, wasn't it true that in this time period Highlanders generally spread their great kilts and rolled up in them like sleeping bags when in the field? If so, it would make more sense that they did not permanently stitch pleats into their kilts since it would defeat the multi-use purpose of them. We see later evidence (in the 1800s) of kilted regiments carrying separate bedrolls, but I was under the impression that pre-Culloden units like the Black Watch were still using their kilts like other Highlanders, in terms of doing double-duty as cloaks, blankets, and bedrolls. If this is true, I could see why having loops stitched in for easy pleating in the field would make sense, but not permanent stitching of pleats. Am I way off base?