Pleating to Horizontal ?!

[MacBean]

The reason that the teem "pleating to the block" doesn't appear in TAoK is that it's simply a variant of pleating the stripe.

WRT the pic in the previous post, the problem with pleating to the double brown stripe is that the two brown stripes are not quite the same width. This means that a pleat isn't bilaterally symmetrical. I think that pleating to the stripe looks best when pleats are bilaterally symmetrical.

Looking at the photo, I must be missing something Barb. I see from left to right: wide brown, narrow brown, then wide brown, which is symmetrical. True, the first wide brown is a section of a much wider brown, but the way he's got this pinned it looks symmetrical to me. Can you train my eyes?

[OC Richard]

Yes that's quite true Barbara, that the two brown lines are of slightly different widths.

Since that's only apparent if you're very close (closer than anyone would normally be to my tochis when I'm out piping) I accept the slight loss of symmetry for the larger gain of colour. If, while looking at that three-pleating-option photo, you put up your hand so that, one at a time, you can see the kilt front and only one of the three options, you'll note that the option on the right captures the colours of the tartan better than either of the other two.

The lefthand option makes the entire kilt rear brownish and dull, the centre option makes the entire kilt rear pale green. Only the righthand option allows pure undiluted purple to glow out at you... and it's the lovely colours which attracted me to Isle Of Skye in the first place.

[Grae]

To my eye often Black Watch kilts seem pleated to the horizontal "line" as the thin black stripe it is really pleated to does not stand out against the stronger horzonal effect of the pleating- and looks good. I had my Graham of Montrose (modern) pleated this way and now realise why people ask me if it is black watch, from behind there is no white stripe and the horizonatal green,blue and black do look similar. I must say that the phrase Lawn Chair look has the implication of inferior pleating style which I do not think is warranted in all cases, the pleating effects are really dependant on the tartan some look good pleated to the "horizontal line" effect and some less so I believe that if you like the look of pleating effect in your kilt you should not be swayed by so called "rules" of correct looks. That said I do value the advice of my kiltmaker and consult them on questions such as these.