Stage Curtain fullness and pleating
“Can you explain the various types of fullness and/ or pleating styles?”
We get this question quite a bit. The green drapes in the picture below are 75% fullness in Imperial (32 oz with a sheen). The black is Charisma (26 oz matte) sewn flat.
Delta State University curtains, track, rigging, and installation by BellaTEX Stage Curtains.
The tall green curtain has a dust ruffle that was made very stiff:
Grand drape dust ruffle detail
This causes the pleats to gradually change from lots of smaller pleats into fewer large pleats towards the bottom. This drape is 35′ tall so this can help you visualize the scale.
BellaTEX Stage Curtains offers Box Pleats, Knife Pleats, & Pinch Pleats (and most any other way folks can think of to fold fabric). In the United States, most people ask for box pleats. In Europe, knife pleats are more popular. As far as appearance goes, unless you can actually see the pleat itself they all look about the same.
When considering box pleats vs. knife pleats, remember that the track system to which you are attaching the curtain is an important consideration. BellaTEX stocks both styles of track and we supply them with components to work with whatever the pleat style is.