Curtain Styles and Heading Types Guide

1. Pinch Pleat (French Pleat / Triple Pleat)

The classic. Three small folds pinched together at regular intervals, creating structured vertical lines down the curtain. This is still the most requested heading for condos in Mont Kiara and landed homes across PJ and Bangsar.

Pinch pleat works with almost any fabric weight — from 120gsm sheers up to 340gsm velvets. That versatility is why it has stayed popular for decades. But it does need skilled sewing. Each pleat must be spaced evenly, typically 12-15cm apart, and the depth of each pleat needs to match. Sloppy spacing shows immediately.

Most suppliers won't tell you this, but the buckram stiffener inside the heading matters almost as much as the fabric itself. Cheap 8cm buckram from Guangzhou works fine for lightweight polyester. For heavy linen or velvet, you need 10cm woven buckram — the fusible kind from Korea or Japan. The price difference is RM3-5 per metre, but the hang is night and day.

2. Wave Fold (S-Fold / Ripple Fold)

Clean, modern, minimal. Wave fold curtains form continuous S-shaped curves instead of traditional pleats. This heading dominates commercial hospitality projects — hotels in KLCC, serviced apartments in Bukit Bintang, corporate offices in KL Sentral.

Here is where things get specific. Wave fold requires a dedicated track system with gliders spaced at exact intervals — usually 60mm or 80mm apart. You cannot retrofit a wave fold onto a standard curtain track. The track itself costs more, and it must be recessed into a pelmet or ceiling for the clean look.

Fabric selection is critical. Wave fold needs a fabric with natural drape and consistent weight across the width. Stiff fabrics fight the fold. Heavily textured weaves create irregular waves. Your best options: smooth polyester blends around 180-220gsm, soft sheers, or fluid dimout fabrics. We stock roughly 143 SKUs suitable for wave fold at our warehouse — ask for the wave fold sample book.

Container delays from China ports in Q1 this year pushed lead times on some wave fold tracks to 8-9 weeks. If your project has a tight handover date, confirm track availability before ordering fabric.

3. Eyelet / Grommet

Metal or plastic rings punched directly through the top of the fabric, threaded onto a curtain pole. Bold, casual, contemporary. Popular for retail showrooms, co-working spaces, and younger homeowners who want that relaxed look.

Eyelet headings create deep, uniform folds. Dramatic when done right. But the fabric choice is unforgiving — anything too thin wrinkles between the grommets, and anything too heavy (above 280gsm) sags and pulls the pole.

Ring diameter matters. Standard eyelets are 40mm inner diameter, which suits poles up to 35mm. For larger 50mm decorative poles, you need 50mm rings — and those are harder to source locally. Most hardware shops along Jalan Ipoh carry the 40mm in chrome, brushed nickel, and matte black. Gold finish? Special order, 3-4 weeks.

One gotcha: eyelet curtains cannot stack as tightly as pleated ones. Budget an extra 15-20cm of stack-back space on each side of the window. For narrow windows under 120cm, eyelets eat too much glass area when open.

4. Pencil Pleat

The workhorse. Narrow, tightly gathered folds created by pulling drawstrings through a heading tape. Pencil pleat is the bread-and-butter heading for volume curtain makers, kedai langsir operators, and anyone producing curtains at scale.

Why? Speed and cost. A decent tukang jahit can finish a pencil pleat panel in under 20 minutes. The tape costs RM2-4 per metre depending on quality. And the three-position hook pockets give you flexibility to adjust the hang height after installation — useful when you are working on older buildings where window reveals are not perfectly level.

Pencil pleat suits lightweight to medium fabrics, roughly 90-220gsm. It handles blackout fabrics well because the dense gathering hides the white backing that shows through on some other heading styles. For hotel refurbishment projects, pencil pleat on a blackout or dimout fabric is the default specification.

5. Goblet Pleat

Wine glass shapes at the top of each pleat — stuffed with wadding or rolled fabric to hold the goblet form. Theatrical. Statement-making. You see goblet headings in luxury bungalows, five-star hotel lobbies, and high-end showrooms where the curtain is a feature, not background.

Goblet heading demands heavy, structured fabric. Below 200gsm and the goblets look deflated. The sweet spot is 240-320gsm — think thick linen blends, jacquard, or velvet. The wadding inside each goblet (usually dacron or polyester fibre fill) needs replacing every 3-5 years as it compresses.

Making cost is the highest of any heading style. Each goblet is hand-formed and stitched individually. Expect RM22-35 per metre for skilled work, and the sewing takes roughly twice as long as pinch pleat. Most curtain workshops in KL subcontract goblet headings to specialist sewers.

6. Inverted Pleat (Box Pleat)

The reverse of a pinch pleat — folds face inward, creating a flat front with structured pleats hidden behind. Modern and tailored. Works brilliantly for boardrooms, executive offices, and minimalist residential schemes where you want structure without the decorative fuss of visible pleats.

Inverted pleats require medium to heavy fabric. Lightweight sheers lack the body to hold the box shape — the pleats just fall open. Stick with 180gsm minimum. Medium-weight polyester-cotton blends at 200-260gsm give the best result.

Spacing is typically wider than pinch pleat — around 15-20cm between pleats. This means slightly less fabric usage for the same track width, which offsets the higher sewing complexity.