Stripe/Sett

[Brian K]

To my eyes, tartan that is pleated to the stripe looks far too busy. That might be fine for the military and pipe bands that require that sort of thing, but I am not convinced that effect is required for civilian wear.

Thanks, Jock. I wondered when one of our resident Highlanders would respond to this thread.

It occurs to me that one reason I, and so many of our brethren on this side of the Pond, might prefer pleating to the stripe is that so much of our exposure to the kilt, whether in the media or in person, involves the military or pipe bands. Since this style is what we see most it is what we come to expect and, thus, a preference is developed. Perhaps if I had seen more kilts pleated to the sett I would have a different opinion.

I also can not discount the fact that as someone who enjoys designing tartans that pleating to the stripe appeals to me because it is a way of exploiting different elements of the design for various effects. Anything that makes a design of mine more versatile is going to make me happy. Of course, if someone ever decides to have one of my tartans woven and sewn up into a kilt () I'm going to be pleased no matter how they have it pleated .

Regards,

Brian

[OC Richard]

I almost always prefer pleating to the line/stripe.

I suppose the reasons boil down to:

1) tradtion. Military kilts have always been pleated to the line, and as far as I know early civilian kilts were either pleated to the line or in some cases pleated more or less at random. Pleating to the sett, in other words, seems to be a rather modern idea.

2) variety. You get two "looks" for the price of one, as the kilt rear looks quite different from the kilt front.

3) aesthetics. I usually follow the idea "form follows function". The rear of the kilt is made of a series of pleats. It is not a flat piece of cloth. What is gained by attempting to make it resemble a flat piece of cloth.

BUT... there are two notable exceptions I've come across over the years:

1) the visual effect of some tartans is completely dependant on all the colours being seen at once. For these tartans, no matter which portion of the sett is chosen for replication across the pleats the look of the tartan is severly weakened.

2) if the wrong portion of the tartan is chosen for the pleats, the rear of a kilt can look ugly even if the tartan is a nice one.

The best example is here. This band's kilts are widely disliked around here, though the tartan itself is striking and nice. The tartan combines an extremely rich and vivid blue with a mustardy yellow. But they chose to use the yellow for the pleats, so that the entire kilt rear looks like a dingy mustard. This problem is a major one for a pipe band, as pipe bands compete in a circle with their backs facing the audience. So many people who have heard this band play repeatedly have got the impression that their kilts are an ugly mustard colour. (The rear of these kilts looks more mustardy in person than in this photo.)

[JSFMACLJR]

What I do not like about pleating to the stripe is that it makes the kilt look "unnatural." The beauty of the tartan, in my humble opinion, is destroyed by playing "cute games" with the rear of the kilt. I don't need flashes of colour brought about by the "swish" of the kilt: the tartan speaks for itself!

Of course these are my opinions. I'll still go around wearing my boring old kilts with no wow factor.

[Brian K]

What I do not like about pleating to the stripe is that it makes the kilt look "unnatural." The beauty of the tartan, in my humble opinion, is destroyed by playing "cute games" with the rear of the kilt. I don't need flashes of colour brought about by the "swish" of the kilt: the tartan speaks for itself!

Of course these are my opinions. I'll still go around wearing my boring old kilts with no wow factor.

Sandy-

I seriously doubt that there is anything about your Highland wardrobe that could accurately be described as boring, and that is not what I meant when I said I had not seen a kilt pleated to the sett that was "appealing" to me. Perhaps I chose my words poorly, but what I meant was that they did not appeal to me in the sense of saying "Wouldn't you like something just like me?" I work retail so I see many people every day and I see a lot of perfectly fine outfits that I have no interest in owning or wearing. It's not that I don't like them, just that I don't want them. Of course I also see a lot of people in outfits that are "unappealing" in EVERY sense of the word. There are times when wearing dark glasses (a blindfold?) would be nice.

As far as "unnatural" is concerned, my opinion (and that's all it is - I like this forum because at its best it's descriptive not prescriptive) is somewhat different from yours.

Most garments that are pleated - trousers, shirts (backs and sleeves) and skirts, for example, are pleated with little more in mind than how many pleats there are in a certain space and how deep those pleats will be. No complicated mathematics to determine how to lay them out to achieve a particular effect. Matt Newsome has explained, at X Marks and other places, that the earliest kilts were pleated to "no pattern" and that the current usage of pleating to stripe or to sett are innovations that came along later. In that sense any particular pleating scheme that creates or preserves a particular pattern is "unnatural."

Of the two "unnatural" options, I prefer pleating to the stripe because it is not pretending to be something it is not - as OC Richard put it - a flat piece of cloth, but it is, in fact, emphasizing (celebrating?) the pleats, which are essential to proper kilt construction. Pleating to the sett seems to me an attempt to conceal, rather than reveal, the pleats.

Your mileage may vary, but, for what it's worth, that is my humble opinion. I don't really care how someone else pleats his kilt, but that's how, and why, I'd make my choice when the time comes.

Regards,

Brian

[Brian K]

I forgot to mention in my immediately preceding post that I agree entirely with Jeff and Richard that there are going to be times when pleating to the sett might well be the only good option. I viewed Jeff's new kilt in his review and it is lovely. After reading what he wrote here I concur that pleating to the stripe could have led to unfortunate results.

In the thread that's currently running about box pleated kilts and whether they work best pleated to stripe or sett Matt has several examples of how he has done them including two pleated to "no pattern" - one by necessity and one by request.

Regards,

Brian