Sett vs. Stripe

[imbrius]

I'm all for random beer but is there any way to stop the forum software from turning parenthetical ordinals into beer-moji?

[Tobus]

I'm all for random beer but is there any way to stop the forum software from turning parenthetical ordinals into beer-moji?

There's a checkbox under the reply area to disable smilies in text.

[Ivor]

Are there any conventions about this "stripe" or "sett" thing or is it simply a matter of personal taste?

[Manu]

Are there any conventions about this "stripe" or "sett" thing or is it simply a matter of personal taste?

Pure personal taste my County Cavan tank, which is currently in the mail =), is pleated to the stripe. although you will find some who will begrudge such things since in the past the Kilt maker was the one making such decisions and one simply went alone with it. Also, historically, military kilts (as in the ones used as uniforms) have always been pleated to stripe, so some associate the stripe with military kilts, but it is entirely a personal choice. However, I did read a story here once about a fellow who wanted a kilt in the Royal Air Force tartan I believe it was, and the proprietor of the tartan would not allow for him to have it pleated to stripe since this customer had not served in the Royal Air Force.

[LKM]

Stripe vs sett is personal taste as several people have mentioned. Personally I have never seen a tartan that I do not like pleated to the stripe, yet there are some that look better when pleated to a stripe that is not the dominate stripe. One example of this is Morris of Wales. To me the Morris of Wales tartan looks far better pleated to the yellow stripe in the dark blue field then it does to the white stripe in the yellow dominate striping.

https://www.welsh-tartan.com/tartans/21/morris

[OC Richard]

my County Cavan tank, which is currently in the mail is pleated to the stripe.

I'm looking forward to seeing photos, if you would be so kind

[OC Richard]

Personally I have never seen a tartan that I do not like pleated to the stripe, yet there are some that look better when pleated to a stripe that is not the dominate stripe.

Yes so much depends on which stripe.

As I've mentioned there's a pipe band around here that has beautiful blue & gold kilts. The blue is amazingly vibrant.

However they pleated it to the "gold" stripe, Old Gold, a slightly brownish yellow. The result was that the back of the kilts look like a swath of dull yellow.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vDXUn_Y8lg



I think those kilts are an example of a tartan that needs the balance of its main colours to look good. The kilts would have looked much better pleated to the tartan, or perhaps pleated to the blue area.

[Steve Ashton]

In the video OC Richard linked to above, it also shows that while pleating to stripe can be quite striking and show a large difference between the front and back of a kilt - these kilts illustrate very well what is called "The lawn chair effect".

This happens when the stripe going down each pleat is over-shadowed by the colors in the horizontal elements of the Tartan. From any distance at all, the back of the kilt appears to be all horizontal lines. "Looking like you have been sitting on one of those plastic lawn chairs just a bit too long."

One Tartan that can pull off this type of pleating is Isle Of Skye. This Tartan can be pleated so that the same element is down each pleat but that element is not a stripe. This style is sometimes knicknamed "pleating to the nothing".

Barb T. is, I believe the first to pleat an IOS kilt to the nothing. To great effect.



But this also brings in the talent of the kiltmaker. The same Isle of Skye Tartan while pleated to Sett does not look quite as nice.



This illustrates why it is called "The Art of Kiltmaking".

While most Tartans can be pleated many different ways it is incumbent on the kiltmaker to choose those which will look the best and to advise the customer when a choice may not look as good as another option.



The Maple Leaf Tartan is one that is almost always pleated to Sett. The arrangement of the stripes is such that the Tartan does not lend itself well to pleating to stripe.

]

The Maple Leaf Tartan has been pleated to stripe but I will leave it up to you to decide if this was the best choice the kiltmaker could have offered the customer.

[Manu]

I'm looking forward to seeing photos, if you would be so kind

Of course. I won't be able to take this baby out for a stroll until November when I get back from deployment, but I asked my wife to hang it and take some pictures to send to me. I love her dearly but I'll have to teach her how to hang the kilt more properly when I get home anyway, here are the pics, 8 yard premier from USA Kilts county Cavan pleated to stripe
20180906_171244.jpg
20180906_171207.jpg

I like that the stripe is subtle enough where you get the stripe effect as well as the horizontal or lawn chair effect. Better pictures of me wearing and full review in late november!

[OC Richard]

Manu thanks so much! I love the pleating.

Steve please tell me, for that Buchanan/MacMillan, you didn't go yellow.