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Pleats and me — we have a rocky history.
I vividly remember the 1980s and 1990s, aka the decades of the pleated khaki and jeans. And, my dear friends, it was not a pretty sight.
Essentially, unless you were super svelte and had a flat tummy, you looked perpetually 6 months pregnant wearing pleated jeans. I know from experience.
So when I started to see pleated jeans crop up in trendy shops, I had a surge of PTSD. Girls of 2020, do not be fooled by the pleated jeans. The skirts are cool. But the jeans, no!
It was around this same time I started to see pleated decor and having the opposite reaction: lampshades that take me back to my early childhood, ceramic work that looks amazing, pintucked pillows I want, like, yesterday.
But before I show you my favorite finds, let’s take a quick peek at some pleat history. (Because it wasn’t all bad like those 80’s jeans.)
Pleated Decor: Origins
Pleating fabric goes all the way back to ancient Egypt. The time-consuming hand-pleating method was reserved for royalty and their fancy garb. According to Barbagli Pleating company, the method required artisans to submerge the fabric in a liquid gum solution then iron it with a heavy tool while stirring.
Then, in the early 1900s, Spanish stylist Mariano Fortuny created the patented pleat carrying his name. It gained fame with the rise of the Delphos skirt, which boasted long, figure-hugging silk pleats created by hand. Fortuny was inspired by ancient Greek garments that flowed yet still flattered the body.
The Fortuny pleated gown was worn by celebrities including Isadora Duncan, Eleonora Duse, Sarah Bernhardt and Peggy Guggenheim.
Then, decades later, Marilyn Monroe brought pleats back to the forefront with her show-stopping white dress in The Seven Year Itch.
Nowadays, pleats are known for their elegance and sensuality (a far cry from those 1980s pleated jeans!).
Stella McCartney had some signature micropleating. And high-fashion pleats are embodied by Issey Miyake’s Pleats Please line, which runs the gamut from simple, slinky dresses to graphic, bold pleated shapes.
And the newfound love of pleats is showing up in retail shops in beautiful ways, including the skirts below.
But the next, most natural trend for pleats is to jump over into the decor space.
Now that technology exists to create pleats in new and exciting ways, we are seeing shapes that look surreal, including the Plisago side table. The creators explain their inspiration: “We want to present the softness, the poetic, the delicacy, the sensuousness, the fragility of porcelain, and so have given our side table a soft, textile character. Pleats unite these aspects.”
Pleated Decor: Buy Some
I’ve rounded up some of my favorite pleated decor for you to choose from. Click on the corresponding link below the image to shop!
Pleated Decor: Bookmark for Later
