I have 2 white dresses...the one I got initiated in and the one I was made an alumnae in. 3 zillion black ones though...best investment for new members...a plain white shift dress (sleeveless) and a little white cardigan. You'll wear it, even if you're not getting initiated!!! :)

I have 4 black dresses in various levels of dressiness and 1 white dress left over from highschool graduation that is big and ugly. I LOVE all my black ones though and dont have enough chances to wear them.

I have 4 black dresses...and in addition I have a full length black skirt with matching top that I have also gotten away with as a black dress...and then there are my just tons of black dress shirts and black slacks...As for a white dress I do not have one yet...but I will in less then a year (my wedding is in June of 2004)...

Funeral and Question
 

Actually, in my family it's very disrespectful to not where all black during a funeral as well as the wakes. Then again, it may just be my family and our heritage.

Also, do you have to wear dresses to your rituals? Are your sororities strict about that? As I said, Phi Gam is pretty lenient about it so it's more likely that you'll see one of the new initiates or sisters in pants as opposed to a skirt or dress.

Where I am originally from, it's OK to wear non-black to the viewing, but for adults it's black all the way at the funeral. I sometimes feel odd about this though, seeing as so much of my (and my office mates') everyday wardrobe is black and I look pretty good in it. I've told my friends (who also wear lots of black) that they should all wear yellow if they want to make a mourning gesture since most people look so crappy in it.

This is a holdover from the days when you didn't wear black before a certain age - I still remember my mom being shocked at seeing a small child in a black shirt w/ jeans.

I usually try to wear black pieces - for example, for my cousin's grandfather's funeral, I wore black pants and a plain sweater to the visitation, and a black skirt with a cream sweater to the funeral. However, I think at some funerals, when you are in "mourning," it is only appropriate to wear all black. I would have loved to wear a pink sweater to my boyfriend's funeral because he called me "The Pink One" sometimes because I had so much pink, but I am sure his family would have found that very disrespectful, so I wore all black - a black suit with a pink shell to the visitation, and a black dress and cardigan to the funeral.

my mom used to say, "kids don't WEAR black!" I got my first shirt in college. More because I was just used to not buying black than anything else.

and yeah, of course I'd wear black to a funeral.

My chapter used to be VERY picky about our whites. ONLY dresses, no skirt/blouse combos, ONLY white hose, ONLY white closed-toed shoes. We also had a rule about no tank tops for sisters in general, though, until a year or two before I was initiated, though (fall 2000.)

I wouldn't necessarily wear black to a funeral, but I would wear conservative clothes and no bright colors. If it was my funeral, I wouldn't care what people wear, and I don't think most of us would . . . it's more about not offending the relatives of the person. I think this is something that will be changing in the coming years, though. Black used to be off-limits for weddings and now people wear it all the time. I can imagine funeral dress ettiquette changing the same way.

As for ritual wear . . . I'm going to admit that my chapter is very, very easygoing about wearing white dresses. It's almost impossible to find white dresses in Wisconsin in November (initiation season), so if we required our initiates to wear white dresses we probably wouldn't be able to initiate them until May! We don't require white or even off-white clothes, just pastels. We don't require dresses; skirts will do. Shoes don't have to be white. I was initiated in a khaki skirt and a lavender sweater. This is probably against national policy (I don't really know), but it's really, really just not practical to require whites for everybody, let alone get more specific than that.

For funerals... I usually wear mostly or all black. A black pantsuit with white or grey blouse, a black skirt or pants and blouse... depends on the weather and how well I knew the deceased. (For a family member, all or mostly black. If I'm just dropping by a wake or making a shiva call where the deceased is someone I scarcely know, I don't worry so much, but I still wear something relatively somber - that's not the time for the bright red hootchie mama dress :) )

I distinctly remember, when I was about 8, getting dressed to go to a relative's funeral. Little girls don't wear black :) so I had not a thread of black clothing... my mother told me that it was acceptable for young girls to wear white, as it symbolized purity. *shrug* I wound up wearing a grey sweater and skirt.

As for ritual wear... we had a thread on this not too long ago, that got out of hand (people revealing way too much about their ritual gear) and had to be locked... so take care what you say in that regard :)

Wow......I own 0 black dresses. None! I need to get on that. *pets her credit card and says "I'm sorry, baby! I don't mean to hurt you....I just can't help it!"

I always borrowed black dresses for pref.

My white dress was a hand-me-down from an older sister that I absolutely loved. I wore it for every ritual my entire college career. :)

I have one white dress. One black dress for ritual, and about three other black dresses not apropriate for ritual. They look great at semi-formal though!


Terri
Archon
Zeta Omega Chapter
U of M Dearborn

Re: a peek into my closet...
 

Be glad you didn't, or you would have been walking around like Hester Prynn in Nathanial Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. Though I suppose that too would have been a shout-out to your grandmother's career.

That sounds so much like my grandmother! She was an amazing woman. The evening after the funeral, we all went out to her favorite resteraunt for beer & pizza and toasted Gran and her life. It sounds like your grandma was an awesome woman, too.

I have like 6 black dressses but no white dress!
No white dress for me..although i should buy one!!!

:)

I have one black dress, but think I'm buying a new one this year as for white none, i generally wear a white skir with a white top, different everytime

I have seven black dresses. I know, I know, I LOVE shopping!
One for every day of the week...hee hee! ;)
2 are strapless,
1 is one shouldered,
1 is halter--> you can see it here
1 is super plunging (tres sexy! I call it my "Samantha" dress ;))
1 is plain with straps and
1 is with straps and sort of Spanish flamenco dancer looking (it is shorter in the front, longer in back which is a nice look for dresses, ......just not for hair...i.e. mullets...HA HA!)

I just bought a white one on Tuesday. It is sort of Roman goddess looking - very pretty.
I also have a formal'ish white dress, but I don't really occasion to wear it. I suppose it would do as a simple wedding dress in a pinch.