Spot the Frippet: pleat.

Pleated skirts are back in fashion, especially mid-calf-length ones which make people look at least fifty years older than their actual age (and a stone heavier, too).


This pleated smock is called a rochet. Still, it probably wasn't particularly intended to be flattering. Photo by Carolus. 

Some pleats are genuinely useful in allowing freedom of movement:



But many are simply for decoration:


Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Egyptian, about the year zero.

and all are a pain to iron:


portrait by Benjamin Greenleaf

It's an odd thing, fashion.

Still, pleats mean you can fold things:

or unfold them, for that matter, a trick that Nature discovered millions of years ago:


pleated inkcap, Parasola plicatilis. Photo by AJC1 https://www.flickr.com/people/47353092@N00


photo of horse chestnut leaves by Andrew Hill

Then you can find pleats on lampshades, and furniture, and pie-liners, and probably other places, too.

What's the purpose of the first one you find?

Word To Use Today: pleat. This word is basically the same word as plait and ply (as in plywood). It comes from the Old French pleit, from the Latin plicāre, to fold.