Resources
Tartans
Books
The Modern Kilt
The modern tailored kilt is a kilt with the pleats sewn permanently into place from the waist to the hip. Earlier kilts, the Great Kilt (feilidh-mor) and the small wrap (feilidh-beag) were not tailored garments at all. 
The earliest evidence of the tailored kilt was in the Highland regiments of Scotland at the end of the eighteenth century. The garment was substantially smaller than the larg wrap, thus making it more effective and efficient for the modern industrial iron workers. Early versions of this modern kilt had no lining, straps, buckles or closures of any kind. These kilts had no waistband and were simply pinned or belted. The early modern kilt used about half the fabric of the kilt of today. Most of these kilts had a few wide pleats, some as few as six. This is small in comparison to today's kilts which often have approximately 20 pleats and use around 8 yards of fabric.