RRS kilt

[RegularJoe841]

Ok rabble I have found an RRS kilt online that fits my measurements, any comments on them?
Decently made?
How hard are the military box pleats to maintain?
Any responses will be appreciated.

[Tobus]

If it's a genuine MOD kilt with the arrow stamp on the tag, then yes it should be well-made. Condition, on the other hand, can vary greatly. A lot of them have moth holes in the under-apron, straps are dry and cracked, pleats a mess, etc. So you really have to pay attention to the photos you see, and be prepared for there to perhaps be something that needs attention.

Is it a newer surplus kilt or an older one? Are you sure it has military box pleats?

The MBP kilts can be a bit of a pain to maintain the pleats on. They can tend to curl out due to the fact that the outer "rolled" portion of the pleat isn't held in place by adjacent pleats like a knife-pleated kilt. And they are much easier to mess up from sitting on them haphazardly for a long period. But if you pay attention to sweeping the pleats and give your kilt regular maintenance such as pressing, it should last a long time and look grand.

[RegularJoe841]

Thank you Tobus
It is one of the newer surplus ones. From the photos it looks very good. To my inexperienced eyes those military box pleats appear to be a little harder to sort out compared to knife pleats.
I like the tartan,the price and quality are good,if I go for it I will post pics.

[OC Richard]

The most messed up military box pleats I've seen were on a vintage military kilt somebody was selling on Ebay a few years ago.

You can tell that somebody tried to iron the pleats but didn't understand how box pleats work.

So they ironed them flat like knife pleats! But at the fell it was an utter mess.

BTW when I took the Elsie Steuehmeyer kiltmaking class somebody asked her about box pleats. Recall that she was a kiltmaker for Thomas Gordon, Glasgow, who made hundreds of military kilts. Since 3 of the 5 old kilted regiments wore boxpleated kilts she had made tons of them.

Anyhow I was amazed when she said that partway through the kiltmaking process knifepleated and boxpleated kilts were the same. She picked up a kilt that a student was stitching the pleats, and with her fingers she turned the pleats into box pleats.

[Tobus]

Anyhow I was amazed when she said that partway through the kiltmaking process knifepleated and boxpleated kilts were the same. She picked up a kilt that a student was stitching the pleats, and with her fingers she turned the pleats into box pleats.

Indeed. Military box pleats are pretty much just like knife pleats except for the outer "rolled" or "turned-back" portion. As can be seen below on my QOH kilt, the rest of the pleats lay like normal knife pleats in relation to each other. But the part of the knife pleat that would normally be visible in the finished kilt is folded back on itself. This obviously will affect the way the pleats are measured out and stitched together at the fell area, and requires a different method of assembly. In my quest to find someone to make me a new military box pleated kilt, most kiltmakers said no. Too much of a pain in the rear.

It's that "rolled" portion of the pleats that is difficult to tame. As can be seen in my photo, they often don't want to lie flat with the rest of the pleats. There's no adjacent material to keep them wanting to lie down past that last crease. And as one walks, sits, etc., and the material moves in relation to itself, those folds tend to want to open up a little bit and curl outward. So a MPB kilt does take some additional maintenance to keep the pleats tidy, but I love the appearance of this pleating style.

[OC Richard]

In my quest to find someone to make me a new military box pleated kilt, most kiltmakers said no.

I was on that Quest in 2006, I really wanted a Cameron Highlanders style kilt.

I was either told no, or quoted uber high prices. There was a kiltmaker in Scotland, he said he was an ex-army kiltmaker, but he charged over a thousand pounds for an 8 yard boxpleated kilt!

The Quest eventually led to North Carolina kiltmaker Wanda MacSwain, who had a negligible extra charge for military boxpleats. I never ended up ordering that Cameron Highlanders kilt! I had to get a kilt to match our band kilts instead, because the band was going to Scotland in 2007 and didn't have a kilt that fit me. In the end I never found out what Wanda MacSwain military boxpleated kilts looks like.