Pleat Finishing: An investigation into the reshaping and reinstatement of narrow knife pleats.
As a requirement for completing the MPhil in Textile Conservation at the University of Glasgow I was required to undertake dissertation research that is both original and provides meaningful insights and reference material for professional conservators. Despite there being ample literature on the topic of reducing creases upon textile artefacts there is a dearth of literature regarding the intentional reintroduction of creases and folds in the form of pleats. This study contributed to filling this gap in the conservation literature by establishing treatment protocols as well as exploring the complexities of a conservator's decision making in balancing longevity, aesthetic, and material values. Due to pleats featuring predominantly upon dress, the study was contextualised within fashion conservation and thus employed fashion conservation theory as well as referred to historic domestic pleat production and dry cleaning/finishing texts. Historic attitudes towards the importance of maintaining one's standard of presentation in society were also obtained through archives which helped to demonstrate the importance of conserving historic dress aesthetics as well as the meanings of their previous care and maintenance. For it was felt that displaying a fashionable artefact with distorted pleats compromises the piece's meaning, disregards the wearer's intent and thus the piece's historic accuracy also suffers.
Practical laboratory experimentations were carried out which balanced the retention of original narrow knife pleats with the reinstatement of larger regions of distorted pleats. These experimentations utilised humidification to manipulate the fabric as this is generally a less invasive approach than wet cleaning. Also, the experiments avoided artefact deconstruction since retaining original structure is of great importance to an artefact's authenticity and research value. The distorted narrow pleats reinstated have 4mm under folds, such pleats are generally machine produced and require great dexterity to accurately reshape, a challenge I enjoyed tackling and found success using a silk hair thread tacking and weighting method.
However, the intricacy of accurately reinstating ‘perfect’ machine-made pleats by hand and with conservation tools highlighted the imminent need for conservators to develop distinct reshaping and reinstatement techniques to treat the machine-made complex pleats which are entering museum collections. Fortunately, the discursive nature of the specialist interviews with fashion conservators from the Mode Museum (Antwerp) and internationally renowned master pleater and restorer George Kalajian (New York City) supported and contextualised the experimental findings and yielded fruitful information in regard to future solutions and collaboration opportunities for effective pleat reinstatement.
As a researcher I found myself incredibly stimulated by the niche topic of pleat conservation and greatly appreciated the opportunity to engage with specialists to better understand and interpret the significance and transience of the beautiful folded forms which create pleats. Further to this, reference to historic finishing and dry-cleaning texts were invaluable, and I believe as a practitioner I will continue to find relevant wider application for conservation practice when qualified against my scientific conservation knowledge.
