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07-30-2010, 06:46 AM
|  | Retired Forum Moderator Forum Historian  | | Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Southwest Missouri
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Originally Posted by BoldHighlander | Uncle Sas Wants YOU! http://zapatopi.net/bsa/militia/
T.
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07-30-2010, 09:48 AM
|  | | | Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Lotus Land
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Every year the local Skeptics Society has a Sasquatch Search camping trip. To date they have found zero evidence of any Bigfoots, but you bring up a good point. Perhaps they are too well camouflaged in their Matt Newsome box pleated hunting colours kilts!
__________________ Etcheberri Steaphan MacDňmhnall - See my avatar for the fabric I am currently working with. He was a dreamer, a thinker, a speculative philosopher ... or, as his wife would have it, an idiot. ~ Douglas Adams | 
07-30-2010, 01:04 PM
|  | | | Join Date: May 2006 Location: Far NW Corner of Washington State, USA (48° 45' 51.5808" N / -122° 30' 36.6228" W)
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__________________ T. E. ("TERRY") HOLMES proud descendant of the McReynolds / MacRanalds of Ulster & Keppoch. "Ah, here comes the Bold Highlander. No arse in his breeks but too proud to tug his forelock..." Rob Roy (1995) | 
07-30-2010, 01:28 PM
|  | | | Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Baton Rouge, LA
Posts: 333
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My preference is for the 4-yard box pleat. Not all of that has to do with living in Louisiana, but I suspect that the hot weather aids my preference.
I personally think that Matt's kilts look better than the average 8-yarder in that the pleats look neater, straighter, and more in line. I think you see more color in the box pleats than in the knife pleats. Also, the issue with the swing for me is that I prefer less swing because I'm a bit of a roudy/lively Scottish Country Dancer and I would prefer to keep the secret of what's under the kilt.
The only time I ever got a school girl comment I was in a knife pleated kilt at a Catholic girls school for a Scottish Country Dance demo. I think Scheihallion is a bit out-of-line with comments of that ilk. Like it or not, the box pleat IS traditional--it's a revived tradition. Whether it's popular in Scotland or not doesn't make it any less Scottish either.
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James Mungall
Baton Rouge, LA, USA
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07-30-2010, 01:29 PM
|  | | | Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Hong Kong (by way of Toronto, Canada)
Posts: 2,207
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Originally Posted by Jock Scot In many ways you are so right, but the truth is that the civilian box pleated kilt is almost unknown by most Scots of today. Why that is I suppose, is just an accident of history that no one can really explain. Now in the 1940/50/60/70 and maybe even to this day at some schools(I doubt it!) the box pleated skirt was standard issue for school girls and their school uniforms. Yes in those days all school children had to wear a school uniform and the girls wore box pleated skirts. That is why to many(those that are aware) of us over here think that the box pleated kilt looks like a skirt and it really does. That is a part of "our" history that perhaps you chaps outside the UK have not understood. | In Toronto, Canada the standard pleating style for a schoolgirl's uniform is the knife pleat. My lass was quite excited when I bought her a box-pleated kilt-skirt because it didn't remind her of her old uniform!
That being said, many schools over the last few years have been phasing out the kilt-skirt. A terrible shame in my opinion.
Back to the topic of the OP. I don't own a box-pleated kilt but I would like to.
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07-30-2010, 02:59 PM
|  | | | Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Stanardsville, Virginia
Posts: 795
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I own three box-pleats, two made by Matt (and they are both of fantastic quality). They look sharp and have history! Also they are very comfortable, even in the very hot and very humid Virginia summers-also warm in the winter. I highly recommend them. And I'm wearing one now.
The only comment I have recieved about the box-pleat looking like a girls skirt was here on this forum, very early on. I honestly believe I had one of the first here.
Here is a link to a closed thread showing a bunch of box-pleats- http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/f...d-kilts-25030/
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Last edited by David White; 07-30-2010 at 03:12 PM.
Reason: forgot link
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07-30-2010, 04:00 PM
|  | | | Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Kingston upon Thames,UK
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Originally Posted by Semiomniscient I think Scheihallion is a bit out-of-line with comments of that ilk. Like it or not, the box pleat IS traditional--it's a revived tradition. Whether it's popular in Scotland or not doesn't make it any less Scottish either. | Quote:
Originally Posted by Jock Scot Actually Matt to British eyes, particularly ones over 40, box pleats do remind us very much of school girls' skirts. This is perhaps a cultural thing as I don't know that box pleats in North America have the same connection.I suspect that they don't. Maybe that is why knife pleated kilts are the accepted way of pleating the kilt on this side of the pond.We also do not have the sort of heat that many of you chaps have to endure and of course your winters in the northern parts of North America are something that we over here can only imagine. |
I do think that everyone is entitled to comment, and many of us over in Great Britain feel much the same about the 4 yard box pleated kilt, so I don't see why Scheilallion 's comments ( or indeed Jock's) are not as equally valid as yours.
The great thing about forums that they show a wide range of viewpoint, it's up to each us to accept the viewpoints as opinons,
The 4 yard box pleated kilt is an historic garment, not really traditional ( as we have often debated this) in the generally recognised sense.There is nothing wrong with people making it or wearing it , but as Jock and so many others say, it's not a traditional garment in Scotland.
It seems that in the States, the makers and wearers of it are overly defensive of it. I don't think anyone from Scotland has ever said they shouldn't be worn, or indeed might even have been worn a long time ago.
Jock often comments that he worries about appearing like a stuck record, I'm with him and lots of others over here in Great Britain
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Traditional and Modern | 
07-30-2010, 04:27 PM
|  | | | Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Desert SW USA
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Originally Posted by BoldHighlander |
Full mask sasquach sporrans.
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07-30-2010, 11:40 PM
|  | | | Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Lancashire, England
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I've got a Lady Chrystel Double Box. My kilt is beautifully made and comfy as can be and in Lancashire everybody looks at me oddly no matter what kilt I'm wearing so in my environment, being boxed isn't an issue. The majority of English folk wouldn't know the difference as a kilt is a kilt and they're all skirts to most.
I've also worn it in Scotland and I've had the schoolgirl's skirt comment there (in jest I presume) and that was from another kiltie. This would show I suppose, that it is a common opinion.
I care not a jot personally  I like it and it's me wearing it and if I was sensitive to comments about the kilt or me being kilted, I'd be wearing trousers...
I do take the point however that in Scotland at least. Box pleats my be historic but they are not traditional (in the sense that tradition is a continuing practice of the accepted norm). The 8yd knife pleat really is king.
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Best Regards John “The English beer is best in all Europe and it was necessary to drink two or three pots of beer during our parley: for no kind of business is transacted in England without the intervention of pots of beer.” Jarevin de Rochefort ~ 1672 | 
07-31-2010, 01:15 AM
|  | | | Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Baton Rouge, LA
Posts: 333
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Originally Posted by paulhenry I do think that everyone is entitled to comment, and many of us over in Great Britain feel much the same about the 4 yard box pleated kilt, so I don't see why Scheilallion 's comments ( or indeed Jock's) are not as equally valid as yours.
The great thing about forums that they show a wide range of viewpoint, it's up to each us to accept the viewpoints as opinons,
The 4 yard box pleated kilt is an historic garment, not really traditional ( as we have often debated this) in the generally recognised sense.There is nothing wrong with people making it or wearing it , but as Jock and so many others say, it's not a traditional garment in Scotland.
It seems that in the States, the makers and wearers of it are overly defensive of it. I don't think anyone from Scotland has ever said they shouldn't be worn, or indeed might even have been worn a long time ago.
Jock often comments that he worries about appearing like a stuck record, I'm with him and lots of others over here in Great Britain | Ahh yes, everyone is entitled to their opinions, I just find the tact of said opinions... lacking and the intent disagreeable. I'm entitled to that as well.
I really don't buy into the line that they aren't "traditional". There is and has been a tradition of wearing box pleated kilts--an older tradition than with knife-pleated kilts. The tradition simply has not been entirely continuously popular. Whether or not Scots still in Scotland recognize it or not, the diaspora has embraced it, which is worth something.
I think if we are overly-defensive, it's because we tire of the silly criticisms comparing it to a school-girl skirt, etc. The average person can't tell the difference between box-pleats and knife anyway. I honestly think some of the school-girl remarks are just made up rubbish to demean the revival of this old style... for what reason, I don't know. Maybe some sort of grumpiness that its revival is North American? I guess I do similar things with "contemporary kilts" when I rail against them. But those have their defenders too. And everyone of us defends wearing the kilt to non-kilt-wearers. So I really don't see the real point in suggesting that box-pleat wearers are overly-defensive as though its something to do with insecurities with the box-pleat... because we all are defenders of the kilt.
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James Mungall
Baton Rouge, LA, USA
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