We do dress check for every round of rush as well as for our formals. That's just how it is down South.

And for our prefs, we wear black cocktail dresses-- no strapless or spaghetti strap-- black closed-toe dress shoes, nude hose, pearls, our badge, and we follow the 3-piece jewelry rule-- no more than 3 pieces of jewelry on, including your pearls.

I also thought that Gamma Phi encouraged all of its chapters to wear black at pref, but who knows.

Classy, ladies, classy. ;)

my chapter as well as the chapter i've helped out with here wear red dresses. my understanding is that AGD's IHQ is pushing for all chapters to wear red dresses to get away from the black dresses that almost everyone else wears.

Hijack alert...

I've never heard of this rule. So does that mean if you're wearing your pearls and, say, an engagement ring, you can only wear one earring? :p (j/k, I assume a pair of earrings counts as one item, not two)

This is a great idea, actually. Otherwise you run the risk of someone showing up with big flashy rings on every finger, three earrings in each ear, and a dozen gold chains!

Do engagement and wedding rings count? If someone wears both, are they one item or two? I've always believed you're not fully dressed without earrings, and I'd hate to have to pick between my earrings and my wedding ring...

I would consider a wedding and engagement ring the same thing as a pair of earrings.

I think the 3 (or 4, including watch or bracelet) piece rule is good in the professional world as well.

I'm sure your chapter has already decided on this, but I think black dresses with silver blue scarves would look very classy and striking! I especially like the idea that the chapter would be responsible for the scarves and passed on each year.

Our chapter wore black dresses, it was up to us as to what style. I still believe they do that.

Alpha Gams and AOIIs at ISU also wear red for prefs. DZs used to wear these funky green dresses that were passed down each year, but I don't know if they do that anymore.

Yes, a pair of earrings counts as one item. I forgot to add that we had everyone wear pearl studs this year as well. So it was pearl studs, pearl necklace and one other piece of jewelry allowed-- wedding rings and engagement rings excepted. We rarely have engaged sisters at that time of the year anyway.

Oh, and we NEVER let anyone wear a watch during Recruitment, save our Rush chair. That way no one constantly looks at their watch during parties.

Cosign.

The idea is not to look refined, not like a cheap "jewelry store" in heels!

For our last formal rush, we wore black dress pants with white tops, but this time, I think we're gonna dress in all black--cocktail dresses, dress suits, etc.

We are required to wear black formal dresses with pearls only. It actually makes us look quite classy. Since the pnms are required to wear cocktail dresses, it makes us stand out a little more, making the party seem a little more upscale.

We wear black, knee-length cocktail dresses with small pearls and our keys. The PNMs are encouraged not to wear black. :) ...Pref is in a little under two months away and I cannot wait!!

Pref
 

Where I went to school we had a pattern picked out and the material, and then each girl was responsible for finding someone to make the dress. It looked awesome, however it was extremely costly, especially since the next year the head of rush decided against using those dresses again.

The chapter I advise all wear black dresses (approved by the rush chair).

Panhellenic advises that PNMs wear light colors to stand out from the members. This backfired on my chapter three years ago--they ordered leis from Hawaii for pref and they weren't completely thawed before putting them on PNMs. Out of the first party of about 20, approximately 8 PNMs ended up with purple stains on their neck and blouse/dress. Most of those women pledged with us, so maybe it was a sign of things to come!

That actually happened to the DGs on my campus as well sadly :( It was either last year or the year before. It also wasn't only purple apparently, they'd gotten different colors. *shudder* A lot of the PNMs were freaking out, not only because of their clothes, but because it was the first party of two for pref and they were worried about the other chapters.

Of course we knew what happened, and it didn't seem to end up hurting their pledge class any either (though their Wizard of Oz theme didn't seem to go over very well regardless) if they didn't get quota, they COB'd to it, so all ended well. :cool:

Lessons learned: thaw all dyed flowers and that the sororities aren't going to care about an accident that happened at another party, especially when it was a big enough deal that we all knew about it.

Black knee-length dresses. No bare shoulders. Black hose. Black heels with closed toes. Pearl necklace and pearl stud earrings. And our Badge.

Everyone looks uniform, but the different style of dresses really helps b/c you can find one to fit your body type.