Always thought pleats were for formal wear only, until I made a skirt that changed my mind

For years I avoided pleats in my designs because I figured they were just for office suits or wedding guest dresses. Then last month I used a knife pleat technique on a casual cotton maxi skirt for a friend in Austin and it moved so beautifully she wore it to a BBQ. Now I'm realizing I was the one limiting pleats, not the fabric or style. Anyone else dismissed a detail for years before accidentally stumbling onto its real potential?

3 comments

3 Comments

paulnguyen12d ago

I've got three pleated skirts in my closet right now and two of them are straight up cotton ones I wear to the grocery store. Honestly feels like you're making this into a bigger deal than it needs to be. Pleats are just folds in fabric, they've been around forever and people have been wearing them casually way before this month. I've seen little kids running around in pleated school uniforms for years, nobody called that formal wear. Maybe you just needed to see the right one on the right person but the rest of us have been fine with pleats at BBQs the whole time.

faith2712d ago

You're not wrong about kids in school uniforms, but cotton pleats are different than stiff polyester ones that look like a marching band uniform, @paulnguyen. I think a lot of people just haven't figured out the difference yet.

rose_clark8112d ago

Is it really that deep though... like pleats in a school uniform vs. a casual skirt, it's still just pleats at the end of the day?