Deciding how to pleat a kilt

[Jock Scot]

To briefly wander off topic, I think the Scottish Wildcat tartan is a super tartan and would be a smashing choice for those who have no Clan connections. Personally, I would go for the far right of the pleating choices that OCR has shown.

[jsrnephdoc]

About that I don't know, but with an online collage maker it's easy to string together a series of narrow images that imitates what the pleats would look like, pleated to the black block, pleated to the pairs of black lines (which probably won't work), pleated to the red line.

I didn't see the images in the précis delivered by email. Lawn-Chair effect painfully obvious, and I'd not be crazy about ANY of those!

The best way is for the kiltmaker to have the cloth so they can send you photos of mockups of the various pleating options.

Here are various pleating concepts proposed by kiltmaker Paul Henry for the Scottish Wildcat tartan.

It's amazing how differently they all look. (Personally I'd go with the one at far left.)

Not a spectrum of colors I've ever really seen in use in kilts before! Second from right least favorite (it makes it appear that there are DOZENS of far-too-narrow pleats

[OC Richard]

Not a spectrum of colors I've ever really seen in use in kilts before!

Unfortunately those photos don't do the tartan justice, it's beautiful.

In design in general (be it an automobile or a tartan) an extremely difficult thing to achieve is a design that simultaneously looks retro and fresh.

It catches the eye because there's something cutting-edge about it, yet at the same time it has the feel of cool classic vintage things.

The Isle of Skye tartan did that for me the first time I saw it. (Yes I know it's old-hat now, and we can't see it with fresh eyes ever again.) And the Scottish Wildcat tartan did it too.

Second from right is my least favorite (it makes it appear that there are DOZENS of far-too-narrow pleats).

Exactly so. There's something in design called "form follows function" which wants the pleats to look like what they are. Trying a trompe l'oeil thing by pleating to the sett, or doing pleating that looks like there's half as many pleats as there are, or twice as many, don't work from a design perspective.

[jsrnephdoc]

Unfortunately those photos don't do the tartan justice, it's beautiful.

In design in general (be it an automobile or a tartan) an extremely difficult thing to achieve is a design that simultaneously looks retro and fresh.

It catches the eye because there's something cutting-edge about it, yet at the same time it has the feel of cool classic vintage things.

I just looked it up on the SRT website, where the expanded image gives one a better idea of what the unpleated aprons would look like. Totally different impression, so much so that if it were for me I think I'd pleat it to the sett.

Of course, as a relatively new "fashion" tartan, restricted by its designer, I have no idea how one would obtain actual cloth.

[Jock Scot]

Several generations of Scottish traditional kilt makers can't be wrong about their general choices and preferences for civilian kilt pleats usually pleated to the sett. Can they?