I think that is really interesting that at some schools, sisters' bedrooms are a part of the house tour. Our sororities were not allowed to take them near bedrooms because Panhell feared that we would pull them into our rooms and dirty rush them. I think the fear a PNM would experience by being yanked into a bedroom by 3 sisters would outweigh anything people could say while dirty rushing. (In my head, I can picture this "good cop/bad cop" routine going on...LOL)

Obviously this scenario wouldn't happen at any school, but it's nice to know that Panhellenics at other schools are more reasonable about it!

Back to the topic....AXWhoah: Wow! You girls are going to look fantastic! I dig the whole "red accent piece" thing. That is adorable!

LuaBlanca: Everything sounds cute to me! But like another person said, if you have a DZ on campus, the turtle pants might not be a good idea during recruitment. But you can loan them to me. :)

OK... I have a dilemma... I am on the rush committee... and our themed nights are going to be 80's and Chicago... for the 80's night the rest of the committee and our rush chair think we should be more individual and give the chapter a list of 80's "things" (IE Crimped hair, tied at the side over size t shirt, neon shirt) and tell them that they have to wear/do three things from the list.
I personally think we should look a *bit* more unified and maybe all wear different neon t's or different 80's character t's (rainbow bright, strawberry shortcake etc) from hot topic or something and maybe black bottoms and keep the list to just acessories and things to do with your hair.... like wear crimped hair or side ponytail and jelly bracelets or whatever ya know what I'm saying ? What do you all think ?
I guess I'm just not too entralled wth the 80's theme to begin with fashion wise since the 80's was kinda *ugly* .... but everyone else seems pretty happy with it... HELP US BE CUTE and not look like complete 80's fashion victims !!

No DZ on my campus, so the turtles are here to stay!

As for the suits, I'm not planning on wearing them together as suits anyway. They look better and more casual as separates. They're not "corporate-middle-aged-working-woman" suits either. They look a lot like this one here.
I'm considering wearing them (the jackets especially) because September in Boston can get kind of brisk, and they don't scream "Hello! I'm wearing a jacket!" if I keep it on inside.
The pants and skirt aren't "suit-style" either, so you can't tell if I wear them apart.
Seeing as how my campus isn't a traditional campus (we're spread out over many city blocks and on 3 sides of Boston Common) I'm thinking there'll probably be a lot of outside-ness, so I want to make sure I'm comfortable.

Rush!
 

This is so great! I wish I was going to be able to participate in recruitment at my school, but the plans changed so much! There isn't even a school close by me anymore! I'm living vicariously through all of you!

aj

That boggled me last year. IheartAXO was talking about all the matching stuff she had to get for her room, and I couldn't believe it!
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And I'm still doing it this year! Last year was harder though because a) The colors were harder and b) It was a bigger room with more girls.

I'm in LOVE with my room this year! I don't even mind it being on Tours, I'm just gonna love living in it! The color scheme is black and white with some red accents and black and white posters and photos of cityscapes, etc. My roommate is making our duvet covers and they'll be a really cute and classic black and white toile print. She's also making fun little pillows (white with our names embroidered in black, a white pillow with a red satin bow like a little present, black and white gingham, etc- just REALLY cute!) and our black and white checkerboard style rug. I bought some funky white bendable floor lamps and a big black chair with an ottoman. I bought black suede curtains that we'll combine with a sheer white drape behind it (and kinda spread it out to show the black and white). I've also just gotten fun decorations too: posters of Paris at night, canals in Venice, the Eiffel Tower and just mini pictures of black and white cityscapes, picture frames, baskets, vases, etc. I'm really close to buying a big black and white toile hatbox to hang around the room and use as storage. I think we're going to get a white little sidetable and get all crafty also- either with a mosaic or decopage. I'm in LOVE with it! It'll look so classy and sophisticated, but still very hip. We're both PSYCHED to decorate it!

We're still looking for some more stuff too.

The matching beds and everything is so crazy. I can afford to join a sorority but I could never, ever afford to redo my room every year. In that sense, I'm definitely glad I never joined a npc chapter at usc; there's no way I could ever have kept up financially. I think that all of this stuff sometimes goes a little bit overboard and makes sororities alot more elitist than they need to be. This is, in my opinion, where the rumors about those in sororities being rich comes in. A sorority should look unified, but I don't think that should be at the expense of 100s of dollars on clothing and on decorating rooms. That's just my take though, and sorry if I offended anyone with my post!

Actually, the comment about all the money spent making sororoities "too elitist" was very interesting. It made me start thinking of if there was even anything we could do to change it with more panhellenic rules and such, but I really don't think it's possible. The girls going through rush expect it of us, and if one house was to say "that's silly--we're not going to do it like the other houses anymore" I can guaruntee you that their numbers would go down so dramatically--let's just say, I wouldn't think they would have many more rushes to worry about.

At certain schools, the recruitment attitudes are so based in tradition and the idea of "keeping up with the joneses" that there really isn't much you can do.

But as both myself and other girls like IheartAXO have stated, sometimes the money spent is not such a killjoy because we really love what we get out of it--either a really good new wardrobe to start off school with or a really cool room for the entire rest of the year. I guess the point I am trying to make is--the clothes, and the bedspreads, and the money aren't really important in the long run. But because it's fun, and they have become staples of a successful rush, they are things that probably will not change anytime soon.

With the 80's theme you definitly need to push to be more unified. The reason that is, is you can make sure no one does the more tackier things and stick to some of the cuter 80's styles.

At anchorsplash, all the sororities make up sychronized swimming dances. One sorority gave themseleves an 80's theme. I'm not trying to make you worried, but I will tell you what they wore because they looked uhm...not so good: black capris, these turqouise blue work out shirts where they let one strap hang off their shoulder, and then painted on the shirts with puff paints saying "totally 80's." I am sure in there head it was real cute, but it was just one of those things that when it came out it didn't look all that great. The focus was taken off their dancing and onto their horrible themed outfits.

If I were you, I'd go look at the old popular 80's movies (Sixteen Candles, Breakfest Club, ect.), and see what the stylish people wore in those. Take it from there and credit some sort of unification where you all aren't dressed the same, but it is going with the same style. There is a way to look 80's - and then there is a way to look stereotypical 80's (which is where the ugly comes in).

But yes, I would press for some sort of unifying element. Please don't get upset by the post though!! I know it might seem like I am telling you the 80's is a horrible idea - it really isn't, it's just that one sorority used the extreme stereotype and it made them tacky.

this makes me feel sooooo old!
 

thank you thank you THANK YOU!! That is exactly what I was going to say. What is thought of nowadays as "80's style" is more an MTV stereotype that very few real people wore (except for the cut up sweatshirts and later, big sweaters and stirrups). Actually, when I think of what we wore in the 80's it was more button-down oxfords, polo shirts and Docksiders.

I think the neon shirts or character shirts with maybe denim minis (today's popular style of jeans are extremely non-80's) would look much nicer.

Meridionale I am definitely not offended, I honestly don't really like that we chose the 80's theme because of the possibility of ugly clothes 1st of all and second of all because of most of the freshman this year are going to have been born in like what 85 86!! I'm afraid that they're not really going to remember or care or feel nostalgic as we all do when we see strawberr shortcake and rainbow bright and hear old school madonna ya know?? but our rush chair is SOOOOOOO excited about it.... you can't say anything to her...

Okay, here's my major concern for rush week this fall: I go to the U of A- in TUCSON. Its in the middle of August, its gonna be over a hundred degrees outside. All the PNMs-including myself-are gonna melt away. I know you should give a good first impression, but how is that possible when you are dripping with sweat??? lol..... I just hope the first two days of open house go well. The heat is gonna be a huge problem!!

ASU is going to be FUN for rush as well!!! Plus, when its really hot my face gets way red....oh well...I just really hope we're not outside alot at rush, cuz I want to look super cute!

I feel the same way! My face gets really red also and I wanna look cute, too......I just hope the heat isn't really bad. With my luck, it'll rain lol....

I was just talking to my Rush chair today about what we're going to wear and I'm soooo excited. we're going to be uniform for the first round for the first time in FOREVER. she's soooo awesome anyway, this is our run down (it'll probably be tweaked and specified later):

round one: nice, fitted v-neck light purple t-shirts that read "Sigma Sigma Sigma" in small script on the chest with khaki pants or a khaki skirt...I don't think we've thought about shoes yet...

round two (philanthropy): we'll be on the floor working with a craft so we'll probably be in jeans any ideas on a uniform top that's not too exspensive or another t-shirt?

round three: individual badge wear (we don't want to be uniform every night) costumes for those in the skit

round four: ummmmm BLACK DRESSES AND SHOES (could anyone have guessed.

I'll update and edit as plans get nailed down, have I mentioned that I love rush lately? cuz I do I really freaking do!

No worries. All you need to do is dress for the heat. Remember to wear sunblock (very important) and comfy shoes. Most of the time you're inside the nice climate controlled chapter houses with women offering you water every five seconds. And also remember that 700 other women are going through the same thing as you, so you're not gonna be the only girl who is feeling a bit toasty.