as my sister said, Phi Sig doesnt have any rules.

My one sister bought an orange and blue shirt cos she was dating a KDR...

We have our own shirts to reflect our own personality, and we also do have family letters. My family letters are leopard on a black shirt, and we also have pink on grey sweatpants... People know thats ours.

But we do own our bright YELLOW coats with blue letters...

Some color combos are just boring. If we got mad at every person wearing yellow and blue at Clarion, we'd be in trouble seeing that those are our school colors!

And I do know that we say that TBS's colors are blue and white, but when around our district and nationally, we have to say white and blue due to the presence of Zeta Phi Beta and Phi Beta Sigma :)

ooh gotcha thanx for clarifying that yea we don't have any rules on that, only our crossover letters always have something to do with the sorority, like one of our symbols is the star so the crossover letters for my class had stars on them

I've never really even thought of this before...

All of my sisters and I have letters in every shade of the rainbow, and so does every other sorority on campus, I think. I know one DZ that has at least 5 different tote bags that are all adorable and all unique. My tote is black with purple letters & silver backing and silver "Beta Kappa" underneath because I loved the colors together, and we've used it on many display tables.

I have 'nalia of different colors. I have items in white, black, and khaki (in addition to pink and green). However, my letters will always remain pink or green (or both). They are the official colors of my sorority (although the interpretation of pink and green vary from soror to soror), and I will only wear them. Also, just because I use my official colors does not mean my 'nalia is not creative. The possibilities are endless.

Well, in Phi Mu Alpha, our colors -- Red, Black and Gold (we use white, too) are a big deal. While we don't have a rule on the matter, I've never seen a brother wearing letters or having other lettered paraphernalia that is not in at least two of these colors. Even when an unusual print material is used for the letters, these colors will be in the print. The fact that red, black and gold are not, so far as I know, used by any other GLO and are therefore particularly distinctive may be one reason we tend not to use other colors. It doesn't hurt, either, that they are easy to come by -- or that they look damn good together. ;)

Correction for myself: The background might be of different color, as my soror pointed out. For example a blue denim shirt with letters or a khaki hat with letters. But the actual Greek letters should be black and old gold.

Okay I get what you're saying when looking at ordering letters in all the different colors i.e. that they should be correct colors for your sorority/fraternity.
But what about greek101.com's site which offers the colors (from which you'd choose your own) but it also offers letters in Animal print styles and numerous other patterns. Would your fraternity/sorority not order letters like that?
N.B Though MysticCat's post was quoted, question not directed to any one poster :).

I think one of the most attractive recruitment outfits (for a very relaxed round) for NPC sororities is nice jeans and their block letter shirts...in whatever pattern they wish. The reason is, like many other people have said, it showes diversity with in an organization. Even if the diversity is just taste in style! I would be scared to death to walk into a house and having EVERY girl wearing the EXACT same thing, right down to the toe nail polish, but that is how it often happens...

By the way, my favorite letter shirt that I own is White, with Red letters that have anchors printed on them...

Red and White are my school colors...

The anchor is DG's symbol!

My sorority, Gamma Sigma Sigma, is a little different.
*thinking of a PC way to put this*

I've been in GSS for 5 years, and what I have noticed is that our chapters which are predominantly AA will wear NOTHING but Maroon and White, our colors. I pledged at a chapter like this. My shirts/line jackets only come in black, white, khaki, or maroon with the maroon and white letters, or vice versa. Like abaci said, though, that doesn't mean my naila isn't creative--I have stuff with either white roses or penguins all over it :D

Now other chapters of GSS that are not predominantly AA have GSS letters shirts of all colors, the letters are all colors. It's for the same reasons many of you have already listed--the "family" colors you guys talked about. When I first saw it I didn't understand it. And my sisters didn't understand why I wore maroon and white all of the time either :D All I could say is, "Well, this is how my chapter does it" :D

Well, obviously, I can't speak about any other group, but in my experience, Sinfonians would not order letters like that unless the pattern contained red, black and/or gold. An example: I had (well, I still have it but I have expanded while it has shrunk) an oxford grey sweatshirt with paisley letters on it. But the paisley pattern has red and black (and a little gold) in it, and the letters have a black border. I would still have to say, though, that again in my experience, Sinfonians have a very strong preference for letters in our colors. Jerseys, for example, almost always seem to be black with gold-trimmed red letters, red with gold-trimmed black letters, or red or black with plain gold letters.

FWIW.

When I was an active in the seventies, it was pretty common to see Greeks wearing colors other than their own because people wanted to wear colors more flattering than their group's might look on them. You see that even more now and I think it's due to "families" choosing their own patterns or colors (Ballerina's XO family, for instance, wears bee letters) as well as the proliferation of patterned letters that may not match someone's colors....bees wouldn't look so great with my wine and blue.

Everything gamma girl said is pretty much also true for APO, although I have seen a handful of non-AA chapters stay true to blue and gold apparel only.

I've also seen APO para in school colors, and honestly, I think it's nice for conventions and what not.

I can definitely co-sign with my Soror on this one. I also have para with background neutrals, such as black, khaki and white. The letters are always going to be pink and green. It's just following protocol.
:)

As for ZTA, there is no protocol regarding the colors of our letters. At my chapter (when I was there) everyone had the same jersey. It was white with gray trim around the neck and sleeves and the letters were turqoise on a gray background. Bigs also gave their littles matching letters. Other than that it was up to everyones taste.