odd/bad pleating #3

[OC Richard]

This is something that always jumps out to my eye, the strange pleating decisions I come across from time to time.

A while ago I posted this one



and more recently this one, which some posters defended as "creative" though to me the one random blue line (which doesn't appear anywhere else) looks like an obvious error



Well now there's this one.

I'll post a photo of the front too, so you can see how little relation there is between the tartan and the pleating

[Tobus]

Looks to me like the maker was just pleating to a set dimension, and letting the tartan pattern fall where it may. Each pleat displays a little more of the tartan sett, as evidenced by the way the red stripe gets wider and then narrower again as the pleats move across the back. In past discussions, I think it's been called pleating to the random.

As I understand it, there's really nothing "wrong" or "bad" about this. In the days before tailored kilts (and perhaps even in the early days of tailored kilts), I would imagine that pleats were done this way as a matter of course. It may look odd or bad if one expects all kilts to follow a certain pleating concept, but it may very well be that the old tradition is still alive.

Do you know who made this kilt? Or at least whether it was made in Scotland?

[Paul Henry]

The third kilt looks very like one from guilty kilts, in one of their own tartans, I've seen this in the flesh and I really don't think it looks bad or wrong, it is simply one way of pleating, infact it might well be thought of as an almost more historic way .

I really do wish that these variations of pleating were not thought of as "wrong" or "bad" , they are not, simply put they are pleated to a way that perhaps some people don't like, or approve of, but there is nothing wrong about it, after all there is not a singlebook of rules of how to make or indeed wear a kilt, and it would do some people well to remember that!

[CaptHowdy0001]

I agree that there are an infinite amount of ways to wear the kilt, none of which are "wrong" but as far as quality kilt standards go wouldn't you agree that the last one looks a bit odd? However, i am really liking the tartan itself quite a bit.

[Jock Scot]

Frankly how many would notice and even if they did would they know any better? I do think that some of us on this website are starting to be rather unnecessarily, unrealistically and rather unkindly fastidious over these details. I can quite understand if you are the customer who is spending a large amount of loot on a bespoke kilt, then these details are a rightfully expected priviledge for the customer to have what he wants, but come on chaps be a bit realistic!

[cable scot]

Frankly how many would notice and even if they did would they know any better? I do think that some of us on this website are starting to be rather unnecessarily, unrealistically and rather unkindly fastidious over these details. I can quite understand if you are the customer who is spending a large amount of loot on a bespoke kilt, then these details are a rightfully expected priviledge for the customer to have what he wants, but come on chaps be a bit realistic!

ya! What he said!

[RockyR]

I tend to agree with OC Richard. I see MANY examples of what I would deem "poor pleating choices", especially on 5 yard kilts.

Here's the issue: On an 8 Yard kilt, the kiltmaker has lots of fabric to pleat to the sett or stripe and do so in a very easy manner... there's plenty of cloth there to play with. On a 5 Yard (or 4 yard) "Casual wool kilt", the kilt maker often has to 'create' a pattern based on the length of cloth they have, the size of the sett, the measurements of the individual and the face / depth of each pleat.

Without trying to sound high and mighty, it is an 'art form' to a degree. To come up with a pleasing pattern outside of the pattern in front of you can be a bit difficult at times. The above pictures are good examples of things I would deem less than desirable for a pattern on kilt. It has nothing to do with the kiltmaker's sewing ability or the construction of the garment, but their 'artistic eye'. Perhaps it's just me being overly critical.

I could go further on the attitude of some traditional kiltmakers towards 'casual type kilts', but in the interest of keeping comments positive, I'll stop here.

[RockyR]

Looks to me like the maker was just pleating to a set dimension, and letting the tartan pattern fall where it may. Each pleat displays a little more of the tartan sett, as evidenced by the way the red stripe gets wider and then narrower again as the pleats move across the back. In past discussions, I think it's been called pleating to the random.

+ 1. I think that's EXACTLY what they did and to my eye, the result is less than 'great'. When you can give one pleat a touch more and another a touch less and have a NICE pattern, why would you pleat it this way?

[Pleater]

Maybe I have some sort of syndrome or a highly developed sense of something or other but the third example in particular just gives me the heebees.

It isn't that I strive for perfection, its just that I don't know any other way of working than having everything perfectly attuned, aligned, represented - after all - someone went to the trouble of creating a piece of fabric which is most likely an accurate representation of the sett, correct to the thread, and then it is pleated with no regard for that.

It makes my brain itch.

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

[RockyR]

Maybe I have some sort of syndrome or a highly developed sense of something or other but the third example in particular just gives me the heebees.

It isn't that I strive for perfection, its just that I don't know any other way of working than having everything perfectly attuned, aligned, represented - after all - someone went to the trouble of creating a piece of fabric which is most likely an accurate representation of the sett, correct to the thread, and then it is pleated with no regard for that.

It makes my brain itch.

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

***

AND someone is spending their hard earned money to purchase a kilt in something that we're creating, so we want to give them the best piece of clothing we can make.