Pleat

A pleat (older plait) is a type of fold formed by doubling fabric back upon itself and securing it in place. It is commonly used in clothing and upholstery to gather a wide piece of fabric to a narrower circumference.[1]

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.

Contents

Types of pleats

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

Shirts and blouses 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.

Jackets 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, dresses and kilts 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.

Trousers

Pleats just below the waistband on the front of the garment are typical of many styles of formal and casual trousers including suit 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 zipper, they are known as forward pleats.

Utilitarian or very casual styles such as jeans and cargo pants are flat-front (without pleats at the waistband) but may have bellows pockets.

Pockets

A bellows pocket is patch pocket 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.

Gallery

  1. Painting of accordion pleated folding fan, Japan, 19th century
  2. Afternoon costume with box pleated skirt and unpressed box pleated bodice panel, France, 1886
  3. Fortuny pleated tea gown, 1917
  4. Golfing jackets with inverted box pleats in the back for movement, 1920s
  5. Knife-pleated kilt with pleats sewn down to the hip line, 2005
  6. Organ pleated gown, Florentine, 1470
  7. Tea gowns with Watteau-pleated backs, Russia, 1899

Notes

  1. ^ Picken, Mary Brooks, The Fashion Dictionary, Funk and Wagnalls, 1957, pp. 256–257
  2. ^ a b Picken, Mary Brooks, The Fashion Dictionary, p. 257
  3. ^ Tozer, Jane and Sarah Levitt, Fabric of Society: A Century of People and their Clothes 1770–1870, Laura Ashley Press
  4. ^ Arnold, Janet: Patterns of Fashion: the cut and construction of clothes for men and women 1560–1620, Macmillan 1985
  5. ^ Arnold, Janet: Patterns of Fashion 1 (cut and construction of women's clothing, 1660–1860), Wace 1964, Macmillan 1972.
  6. ^ Caulfield and Saward, The Dictionary of Needlework, p. 212
  7. ^ Köhler, Carl: A History of Costume, Dover Publications reprint, 1963
  8. ^ Owen-Crocker, Gale R., Dress in Anglo-Saxon Englandrevised edition, Boydell Press, 2004, ISBN 1-8438-3081-7, p. 42, 218
  9. ^ Picken, Mary Brooks, The Fashion Dictionary, pp. 257, 370

External links

References