A pleat (plait in older English) is a type of fold formed by doubling

fabric Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, and different types of fabric. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is no ...

back upon itself and securing it in place. It is commonly used in

clothing Clothing (also known as clothes, garments, dress, apparel, or attire) is any item worn on a human human body, body. Typically, clothing is made of fabrics or textiles, but over time it has included garments made from animal skin and other thin s ...

and

upholstery Upholstery is the work of providing furniture, especially seats, with padding, springs, webbing, and fabric or leather covers. The word also refers to the materials used to upholster something. ''Upholstery'' comes from the Middle English wor ...

to gather a wide piece of fabric to a narrower circumference. Pleats are categorized as ''pressed'', that is, ironed or otherwise heat-set into a sharp crease, or ''unpressed'', falling in soft rounded folds. Pleats sewn into place are called tucks.

Types

Accordion

Accordion pleats or knife pleats are a form of tight pleating which allows the garment to expand its shape when moving. Accordion pleating is also used for some dress sleeves, such as pleating the end of the elbow, with the fullness of the pleat gathered closely at the cuff. This form of pleating inspired the "skirt dancing" of

Loie Fuller Loie Fuller (; born Marie Louise Fuller; January 15, 1862 – January 1, 1928), also known as Louie Fuller and Loïe Fuller, was an American dancer and a pioneer of modern dance and theatrical lighting techniques. Auguste Rodin said of her, "Lo ...

. Accordion pleats may also be used in hand fans.

Box

Box pleats are knife pleats back-to-back, and have a tendency to spring out from the waistline.Picken, Mary Brooks, ''The Fashion Dictionary'', p. 257 They have the same 3:1 ratio as knife pleats, and may also be stacked to form "stacked-" or "double-box pleats". These stacked box pleats create more fullness and have a 5:1 ratio. They also create a bulkier seam. Inverted box pleats have the "box" on the inside rather than the outside.

Cartridge

Cartridge pleats are used to gather a large amount of fabric into a small waistband or armscye without adding bulk to the seam. This type of pleating also allows the fabric of the skirt or sleeve to spring out from the seam. During the 15th and 16th centuries, this form of pleating was popular in the garments of men and women. Fabric is evenly gathered using two or more lengths of basting stitches, and the top of each pleat is whipstitched onto the waistband or armscye. Cartridge pleating was resurrected in 1840s fashion to attach the increasingly full bell-shaped skirts to the fashionable narrow waist.

Fluted

Fluted pleats or "flutings" are very small, rounded or pressed pleats used as trimmings. The name comes from their resemblance to a

pan flute A pan flute (also known as panpipes or syrinx) is a musical instrument based on the principle of the closed tube, consisting of multiple pipes of gradually increasing length (and occasionally girth). Multiple varieties of pan flutes have been ...

Fortuny

Fortuny pleats are crisp pleats set in silk fabrics by designer Mariano Fortuny in the early 20th century, using a secret pleat-setting process which is still not understood.

Honeycomb

Honeycomb pleats are narrow, rolled pleats used as a foundation for smocking.

Kick

Kick pleats are short pleats leading upwards from the bottom hem of garments such as skirts or coats, usually at the back. They allow the garment to drape straight down when stationary while also allowing freedom of movement.

Kingussie

Kingussie pleats, named after the town in Scotland, are a very rarely seen type of pleat used in some Scottish

kilt A kilt ( ) is a garment resembling a wrap-around knee-length skirt, made of twill-woven worsted wool with heavy pleats at the sides and back and traditionally a tartan pattern. Originating in the Scottish Highland dress for men, it is first r ...

s. They consist of a single centrally located box pleat in the rear of the kilt with knife pleats fanning out on either side.

Knife

Knife pleats are used for basic gathering purposes, and form a smooth line rather than springing away from the seam they have been gathered to. The pleats have a 3:1 ratio–three inches of fabric will create one inch of finished pleat. Knife pleats can be recognized by the way that they overlap in the seam.

Organ

Organ pleats are parallel rows of softly rounded pleats resembling the pipes of a

pipe organ The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurised air (called ''wind'') through the organ pipes selected from a Musical keyboard, keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single tone and pitch, the pipes are provide ...

. Carl Köhler suggests that these are made by inserting one or more gores into a panel of fabric.

Plissé

Plissé pleats are narrow pleats made by gathering fabric with stitches, wetting the fabric, and "setting" the pleats by allowing the wet fabric to dry under weight or tension.

Linen Linen () is a textile made from the fibers of the flax plant. Linen is very strong and absorbent, and it dries faster than cotton. Because of these properties, linen is comfortable to wear in hot weather and is valued for use in garments. Lin ...

chemises or smocks pleated with this technique have been found in the tenth century

Viking Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9� ...

graves in

Birka Birka (''Birca'' in medieval sources), on the island of Björkö, Ekerö, Björkö (lit. "Birch Island") in present-day Sweden, was an important Viking Age trading center which handled goods from Scandinavia as well as many parts of Continent ...

Rolled

Rolled pleats create tubular pleats which run the length of the fabric from top to bottom. A piece of the fabric to be pleated is pinched and then rolled until it is flat against the rest of the fabric, forming a tube. A variation on the rolled pleat is the stacked pleat, which is rolled similarly and requires at least five inches of fabric per finished pleat. Both types of pleating create a bulky seam.

Watteau

Watteau pleats are one or two box pleats found at the back neckline of

18th century The 18th century lasted from 1 January 1701 (represented by the Roman numerals MDCCI) to 31 December 1800 (MDCCC). During the 18th century, elements of Enlightenment thinking culminated in the Atlantic Revolutions. Revolutions began to ch ...

sack-back gown __NOTOC__ The sack-back gown or ''robe à la française'' was a women's fashion of 18th century Europe. At the beginning of the century, the sack-back gown was a very informal style of dress. At its most informal, it was unfitted both front and b ...

s and some late

19th century The 19th century began on 1 January 1801 (represented by the Roman numerals MDCCCI), and ended on 31 December 1900 (MCM). It was the 9th century of the 2nd millennium. It was characterized by vast social upheaval. Slavery was Abolitionism, ...

tea gowns in imitation of these. The term is not contemporary, but is used by costume historians in reference to these styles as portrayed in the paintings of

Antoine Watteau Jean-Antoine Watteau (, , ; baptised 10 October 1684died 18 July 1721) Alsavailablevia Oxford Art Online (subscription needed). was a French Painting, painter and Drawing, draughtsman whose brief career spurred the revival of interest in colour ...

. File:Knife pleat.jpg, The knife pleat is the basic pleat used in sewing. File:Pleats with seam.jpg, Knife pleats with the construction and seam stitches shown. File:Box pleats 1.jpg, Box pleats for a skirt.

Modern usage

Clothing features pleats for practical reasons (to provide freedom of movement to the wearer) as well as for purely stylistic reasons.

Shirts, blouses, jackets

Tekkoshocon 2010 cosplayer with Mahora Academy Middle School for Girls winter uniform from Negima

Shirts A shirt is a cloth garment for the upper body (from the neck to the waist). Originally an undergarment worn exclusively by men, it has become, in American English, a catch-all term for a broad variety of upper-body garments and undergarments. ...

and

blouse A blouse () is a loose-fitting upper garment that may be worn by workmen, peasants, artists, women, and children.The Concise Oxford English Dictionary It is typically gathered at the waist or hips (by tight hem, pleats, parter, or belt) so th ...

s typically have pleats on the back to provide freedom of movement and on the arm where the sleeve tapers to meet the cuff. The standard men's shirt has a box pleat in the center of the back just below the shoulder or alternately one simple pleat on each side of the back.

Jacket A jacket is a garment for the upper body, usually extending below the hips. A jacket typically has sleeves and fastens in the front or slightly on the side. Jackets without sleeves are vests. A jacket is generally lighter, tighter-fitting, and ...

s designed for active outdoor wear frequently have pleats (usually inverted box pleats) to allow for freedom of movement. Norfolk jackets have double-ended inverted box pleats at the chest and back.

Skirts and kilts

Skirts A skirt is the lower part of a dress or a separate outer garment that covers a person from the waist downwards. At its simplest, a skirt can be a draped garment made out of a single piece of fabric (such as pareos). However, most skirts are fit ...

dresses A dress (also known as a frock or a gown) is a one-piece outer garment that is worn on the torso, hangs down over the legs, and is primarily worn by women or girls. Dresses often consist of a bodice attached to a skirt. Dress shapes, silhoue ...

and

s can include pleats of various sorts to add fullness from the waist or hips, or at the hem, to allow freedom of movement or achieve design effects. * One or more kick pleats may be set near the hem of a straight skirt to allow the wearer to walk comfortably while preserving the narrow style line. * Modern kilts may be made with either box pleats or knife pleats, and can be ''pleated to the stripe'' or ''pleated to the sett'' (see main article Kilts: Pleating and stitching).

Trousers

Pleats just below the waistband on the front of the garment are typical of many styles of formal and casual

trousers Trousers (British English), slacks, or pants ( American, Canadian and Australian English) are an item of clothing worn from the waist to anywhere between the knees and the ankles, covering both legs separately (rather than with cloth extending ...

including

suit A suit, also called a lounge suit, business suit, dress suit, or formal suit, is a set of clothes comprising a suit jacket and trousers of identical textiles generally worn with a collared dress shirt, necktie, and dress shoes. A skirt su ...

trousers and khakis. There may be one, two, three, or no pleats, which may face either direction. When the pleats open towards the pockets they are called reverse pleats (typical of khakis and corduroy trousers) and when they open toward the crotch, they are known as forward pleats. Utilitarian or very casual styles such as

jeans Jeans are a type of trousers made from denim or dungaree cloth. Often the term "jeans" refers to a particular style of trousers, called "blue jeans", with the addition of copper pocket rivets added by Jacob W. Davis in 1871 and patented by ...

and

cargo pants Cargo pants or cargo trousers, also sometimes called combat pants or combat trousers after their original purpose as combat uniform, military workwear, are loosely cut pants originally designed for rough work environments and outdoor activities, ...

are mostly flat-front (without pleats at the waistband) but may have bellows pockets. Pleated trousers were popular before World War II. Pleated pants, especially of the double reverse pleat variety, were commonplace in the 1980s and 1990s, but by the late 2000s they had fallen out of favour.

Pockets

A bellows pocket is patch

pocket A pocket is a bag- or envelope-like receptacle either fastened to or inserted in an article of clothing to hold small items. Pockets are also attached to luggage, backpacks, and similar items. In older usage, a pocket was a separate small bag o ...

with an inset box pleat to allow the pocket to expand when filled. Bellows pockets are typical of cargo pants, safari jackets, and other utilitarian garments.

Pleated blinds

The pleated blinds are curtains made of a dense fabric that folds up in an accordion when lifted. The model was developed in Germany in the middle of the 20th century. Today pleated blinds are popular all over the world due to their functionality, variety of design and effective protection from sunlight.

Gallery

Image:Fan, Japanese.png, 1 – Sunray pleats Image:GrandsMagasinDuLaSamaritaineSaionDEte1886page21 detail 1.jpg, 2 – Box pleats Image:Conde nast fortuny.jpg, 3 – Fortuny pleats Image:Highland Dance 002.jpg, 4 – Knife pleats Image:Antonello da Messina 060.jpg, 5 – Organ pleats Image:Wiktor Elpidiforowitsch Borissow-Mussatow 002.jpg, 6 – Watteau pleats Image:Evzonen.jpg, 7 – Fine boxed pleats # Woodblock print of sunray pleated folding fan, Japan, 19th century # Afternoon costume with box pleated skirt and unpressed box pleated bodice panel, France, 1886 # Fortuny pleated Delphos gown, 1917 # Knife-pleated kilt with pleats sewn down to the hip line, 2005 # Organ pleated gown, Florentine, 1470 # Tea gowns with Watteau-pleated backs, Russia, 1899 # Fustanella - Balkans men's garb with pleats

References

Sources

* Arnold, Janet: ''Patterns of Fashion: the cut and construction of clothes for men and women 1560–1620'', Macmillan 1985. Revised edition 1986. * Arnold, Janet: ''Patterns of Fashion 1 (cut and construction of women's clothing, 1660–1860)'', Wace 1964, Macmillan 1972. Revised metric edition, Drama Books 1977. . * Kohler, Carl: ''A History of Costume'', Dover Publications reprint, 1963, * Owen-Crocker, Gale R., ''Dress in Anglo-Saxon England''revised edition, Boydell Press, 2004, * Picken, Mary Brooks, ''The Fashion Dictionary'', Funk and Wagnalls, 1957. (1973 edition ) * Tozer, Jane and Sarah Levitt, ''Fabric of Society: A Century of People and their Clothes 1770–1870'', Laura Ashley Press,

External links

Fashion design Parts of clothing Sewing {{DEFAULTSORT:Pleat