To the stripe or set?

[OC Richard]

It would be interesting to find out from the experts when pleating to the sett became popular.

There's a distinct disadvantage to a kilt 1) being pleated to the sett and 2) having belt loops: if you move the straps & buckles to make the kilt smaller or larger the entire rear of the kilt is now off-centre.

While a kilt pleated to the stripe and lacking loops will look the same when re-sized.

This is important in the Pipe Band world where a band's set of kilts might be worn for a half-century and each kilt might have to be re-sized numerous times.

No worries if it's your personal kilt and you stay the same size. My weight has changed considerably over the years and my kilts have been repeatedly adjusted (by myself).

Now the OP's question was specifically about the XMarks tartan which is an ordinary symmetrical repeating sett and offers multiple good places to pleat to the stripe.

I recently got a Hunting Stewart kilt which presents challenges for the pleater.

I very much dislike having the pleats alternate between the yellow and red stripes, and I told USA kilts they could do anything but that!

I really like what they did do, as it creates a nice balance between the brown and grey areas. The only issue with alternating pleats is that it makes the kilt, at first glance, appear to have half as many pleats as it does.