Pleating Army tartan to stripe

**cloves** · 18th January 07, 09:09 PM

is there any way Rocky can just lay out a few options and send you some pics?

**Riverkilt** · 18th January 07, 10:49 PM

Tell you what,

This stuff baffles me. I've had great success by asking my kiltmakers to pleat the kilt the way it looks best to them. When I've come up with wild ideas they've usually pointed out why another way will look sharper.

I have 14 of Rocky's kilts and have just asked him to pleat it the way it looks best and I'm very happy with the looks of the pleats of all 14 of them. For me, much of what I'm paying for is the craftsmanship of knowing what looks best.

That's my choice though. Obviously, the purchaser has a right to request what they want.

Jeez, just realized the Army semi-trad will be USA Kilt #15 for me...and I bought my first USA Kilt 16 months ago...

Ron

**Navyguy** · 19th January 07, 01:03 AM

Well if you have to get an "Army" tartan, vice Navy then go with the yellow stripe. It looks nice.

**RockyR** · 19th January 07, 04:19 AM

We'll do a little test... In the 2 pics below, what is the FIRST thing you notice? SCROLL DOWN FAST AND LOOK AT THE PICS.

The horizontal yellow stripe? If you're in a room that's NOT so well lit (or just "not outside"), the dark sections of the tartan will tend to blend together a bit and the brighter sections will stand out more... you'll notice the yellow horizontal sttipe MORE.

CAN it be done that way? Yes. Are many kilt done this way that I've seen? No.

As I told arrocow over the phone... this effect is what I like to call the "Lawnchair effect". The horizontal stripes give the back of the kilt that plastic 70's lawn chair look (IMHO... you know the ones I mean... they almost look tartan when the wide stripey sections cross). If you like it, GREAT! It can be done, but I'm just offering a word of caution.

The 2 ways that I see this kilt pleated most often is to the yellow stripe (for a different look than the front of the kilt) and to the Sett. While I would probably tend to pleat it to the yellow stripe if I had my choice as the maker, I can gladly pleat it to the sett if you HATE YELLOW (which many guys do).

**M. A. C. Newsome** · 19th January 07, 04:45 AM

We ordered a Strathmore kilt in the US Army tartan for a client just after it came out. Pleated to the yellow stripe in military fashion. Let me just say it was incredibly handsome on him and really just looked extremely sharp.

Here's the thing to consider when trying to select which stripe to pleat to. When you have a tartan like this that is fairly dark and then has one bright stripe (the yellow) that really stands out, that yellow line is going to stand out no matter what line you pleat to in the back.

That means that, no matter what, that yellow color is going to be the dominant feature of the patter. So if you pleat to anything else, you are going to have very visible horizontal stripes across your rear end. As someone suggested on this thread, it tends to, er... accentuate certain features that one might not want accentuated. :-)

Now, pleating it to this dominant line will reduce this effect and give a more balanced look to the whole kilt. This is why when you have a kilt pleated to the stripe, it is almost always going to be the brightest stripe in the pattern.

Now, this certainly does not mean you have to have it pleated to this stripe. You are free to have it pleated to any stripe you choose, and depending on the tartan, it may or may not look good. A lot has to do with the overall color balance of the tartan. For instance, in turpin's Isle of Skye, the colors themselves are all fairly muted, so he was able to pleat to a solid color (no stripe) and it looks great. Really different. I think if you try the same thing with this tartan, you will end up with racing stripes across the back.

Personally, I don't think it would look *bad*. It would just be very different. And you'd have to be sure that's the look you really wanted before you committed to doing it that way.

Matt

**RockyR** · 19th January 07, 05:26 AM

*Standing behind Matt with my chest out jumpnig up and down*

YEAH... what HE said.

Originally Posted by M. A. C. Newsome

We ordered a Strathmore kilt in the US Army tartan for a client just after it came out. Pleated to the yellow stripe in military fashion. Let me just say it was incredibly handsome on him and really just looked extremely sharp.

Here's the thing to consider when trying to select which stripe to pleat to. When you have a tartan like this that is fairly dark and then has one bright stripe (the yellow) that really stands out, that yellow line is going to stand out no matter what line you pleat to in the back.

That means that, no matter what, that yellow color is going to be the dominant feature of the patter. So if you pleat to anything else, you are going to have very visible horizontal stripes across your rear end. As someone suggested on this thread, it tends to, er... accentuate certain features that one might not want accentuated. :-)

Now, pleating it to this dominant line will reduce this effect and give a more balanced look to the whole kilt. This is why when you have a kilt pleated to the stripe, it is almost always going to be the brightest stripe in the pattern.

Now, this certainly does not mean you have to have it pleated to this stripe. You are free to have it pleated to any stripe you choose, and depending on the tartan, it may or may not look good. A lot has to do with the overall color balance of the tartan. For instance, in turpin's Isle of Skye, the colors themselves are all fairly muted, so he was able to pleat to a solid color (no stripe) and it looks great. Really different. I think if you try the same thing with this tartan, you will end up with racing stripes across the back.

Personally, I don't think it would look *bad*. It would just be very different. And you'd have to be sure that's the look you really wanted before you committed to doing it that way.

Matt

**davedove** · 19th January 07, 06:28 AM

Originally Posted by Woodsheal

Some time ago one of the members here (can't remember who!) posted pics of his new US Army kilt. I saved the pics, 'cause I want to get one eventually.

Anyways, his is pleated to the stripe military fashion. I think it looks great:

That would be me

, from this thread:

http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=18311

The kilt was made by Alexis Malcolm with heavyweight (16 oz.) fabric.

**Planopiper** · 19th January 07, 06:37 AM

I have seen some kilts pleated to no verticle line so it just ends up looking like horizontal bands across the back. It can be an interesting effect, I guess, with the right tartan, but it hasn't looked too good on the ones I've seen, imhbao.

**turpin** · 19th January 07, 07:34 AM

I'd be guided by Matt and Rocky's advice. I have a Gordon Modern pleated to the stripe (see avatar). It's similar to the Army tartan in that the base tartan is Black Watch, therefore dark, with a dominant yellow stripe in the green. I love the way the pleats look different than the apron. Th eIsle of Sky, on the other hand, has the muted colors and with sufficient color differences to pull off the "stripeless" pleat, and the horizontal light grey/white line is not nearly as dominant as the double yellow of the Army Tartan. Suggestion: go with the yellow stripe for the Army Tartan, and pick a tartan for your next kilt that will pleat well in the other fashion.

**arrogcow** · 19th January 07, 06:43 PM

I'll probably end up pleating to the yelllow stripe, but I still kind of like the idea of how I originally described pleating. Yes it would look almost like a solid color kilt with 2 (3) horrizontal yellow stripes, but as soon as you move all the yellow would flash. Still trying to figure it out.

Adam