How Many Years in the Switch from Box to Knife Pleat?

**lukeyrobertson** · 1st August 11, 05:57 PM

Bugbear,
It's a great question you pose. I just received my Newsome box-pleat and it was for the historical nature of the kilt that I chose to own this style of kilt. Yes, I have 8'ish-yd knife pleat. Your question has encouraged me to do some more reading and especially re-read Matt's article.

Love the box-pleat. It seems balanced, practical, a little more economical and quite comfortable to wear even though in modern times it bucks the trend.

**Bugbear** · 1st August 11, 08:16 PM

Well, from the same article, the belted plaid is known to be in use in the 1590s, and the "phillabeg" is said to have been documented to be in use in the late 1600s.

There's somewhere around a hundred years, roughly, between each of these changes. I'm only trying to get my head around a rough time line of the changes.

**Bugbear** · 2nd August 11, 12:53 PM

Thanks, figheadair.

**lukeyrobertson** · 3rd August 11, 07:38 PM

OK, so why the change, exactly? Is it a kind of evolutionary thing? It can't be for economical reasons. Anyone know? Or, was it merely new trends in fashion set in military styling? Thoughts on this, anyone?

**figheadair** · 3rd August 11, 11:40 PM

Originally Posted by lukeyrobertson

OK, so why the change, exactly? Is it a kind of evolutionary thing? It can't be for economical reasons. Anyone know? Or, was it merely new trends in fashion set in military styling? Thoughts on this, anyone?

I doubt that we will ever know why for certain but I don't think it was started by the military rather they followed the trend. All the earlier examples I've seen that use more cloth have all been civilian kilts.

I suspect that it was a fashion thing and as will all fashion it followed the trend of the upper classes. It might be that some early-mid 19th century kilt maker used more cloth on an important customer, either to make him seem more important by being able to afford more cloth, or because he/the customer felt the need for more.

**jhockin** · 4th August 11, 09:13 AM

Originally Posted by lukeyrobertson

OK, so why the change, exactly? Is it a kind of evolutionary thing? It can't be for economical reasons. Anyone know? Or, was it merely new trends in fashion set in military styling? Thoughts on this, anyone?

Just my own, personal opinion, but I've always suspected that some cany scot decided to make a wee bit more cash from the sasenacks, by "pushing" the knife pleat, to sell twice as much material

**Bugbear** · 3rd August 11, 11:12 PM

Don't know, not a historian.

**M. A. C. Newsome** · 4th August 11, 04:04 AM

I suspect that the change over from the kilt as common, everyday clothing to less commonly worn ceremonial garb may have played a role, as well.

When you are wearing the kilt simply as your clothing, the lower yardage kilt makes a lot more sense, both in terms of economy as well as practicality and comfort.

However, when a garment is used for more ceremonial purposes, it tends to become more stylized and exaggerated. Let's fact it, all that extra cloth in the kilt lends quite a bit to the swish and swing of it! And when you are trying to make a kilt from a greater amount of cloth, knife pleating is definitely easier than box pleating.

So as the nineteenth century rolled on, and less and less Highland men were wearing the kilt as their daily garb, reserving the kilt for special occasions (if they wore it at all), there may have been a trend for the kilts to contain more fabric, which could have then contributed to the popularity of the knife pleated kilt.

This is purely speculation on my part. Really, do we know why any fashion changes the way it does? :-)

**M. A. C. Newsome** · 4th August 11, 05:50 AM

Actually, in the very early 20th century, I would make the argument that pleating to the sett was not all that common. Apparently it was just starting to come into vogue. In 1901, Ruaraidh Stuart Erskine wrote in The Kilt and How to Wear it about a recent novel form of pleating, the name of which he did not know, but he described it as "revealing the whole tartan pattern." He speaks of it as a very new thing, just starting to come into fashion.

**OC Richard** · 10th August 11, 06:01 AM

Originally Posted by M. A. C. Newsome

Actually, in the very early 20th century, I would make the argument that pleating to the sett was not all that common. Apparently it was just starting to come into vogue. In 1901, Ruaraidh Stuart Erskine wrote in The Kilt and How to Wear it about a recent novel form of pleating, the name of which he did not know, but he described it as "revealing the whole tartan pattern." He speaks of it as a very new thing, just starting to come into fashion.

Very interesting!

But when that pleating pattern came in, it appears to have quickly become the norm.

I'm just now looking through my vintage catalogues:

Lawrie (no date). Kilt pleating is not mentioned. Only one illustration shows a kilt's rear. It is signed, and dated 1926, and shows a Royal Stewart kilt pleated to the tartan.

Anderson 1936. "The kilt is usually pleated to show all round the 'sett' or design." The rears of two kilts are illustrated (Black Watch and Fraser), both pleated to the tartan.

Paisley 1936. Kilt pleating is not mentioned. Only one illustration shows a kilt's rear, an Anderson kilt pleated to two alternating locations. (Interesting, in that the MacDonald kilts worn in the Canadian military are pleated this way.)

When I started wearing kilts, back in the 70s, I think the only kilts pleated to the line I saw were in the military. In the last 20 years or so pleating to the line has got more popular with civilian pipe bands, so that nowadays it's approaching 50/50. It's a common issue: there are a load of MacDonald of the Isles Hunting kilts up on Ebay now, which a pipe band ordered pleated to the line but the kiltmaker made them all to the tartan. And you sometimes see a mix of the two pleating styles within the same band.