I find that it's always best to dress just a notch nicer than what the recruitment book says.

There's also another pref dress thread with dress tips in it:

http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/sh...ght=preference

My own VERY GENERAL advice:

*This is true of all rounds of reccruitment as well, but remember your audience. You're dressing to impress women, not guys. That should reflect in your choices.

*Be careful when considering a strapless dress. Very few people can pull that off without having to tug on it all night to keep it up or having cleavage issues all night. You don't want to be fidgeting and tugging while trying to have a conversation (this goes for more than just Pref).

*Try stuff on and bend over/sit down/etc. You will likely not be standing the entire time at your pref parties. If you bend over and almost have a "Britney" moment, leave it on the rack. Same with your cleavage. If you sit down or bend forward and almost flash the fitting room mirror, that is not the dress for you.

*If you try something on and you think for even a second that it is too short or shows too much cleavage, it probably is too short, and it probably does show too much.

Honeychile, you have great taste! I seriously loveee every one of those dresses, classy and mature but also super cute.

Great pref guide! Actually this is a great guide for daytime clothing in general. One of my pet peeves is girls wearing club outfits to class. Cleavage is for the club, period.

Not to put a fly in the ointment but....At my daughter's school Pref (and this is a highly competitive recruitment, much like the SEC) is in the morning. And the girls seemed to wear nice sundresses. The "best" style would be something appropriate to wear to a very nice hotel shower. But, I have to say, the hemline thing is really a matter of geography (yes, physically and regionally). If a girl has good legs here they wear SHORT skirts. Like micro/mini minis from my generation. If a girl showed up in a knee length dress (I know, Church appropriate in certain parts of the country), she would be dressed like a grandma. And, I strongly suspect would wind up on the second list.

And again here for Prom (at least one year ago) girls wore short dresses to Prom. It was rare to see a long dress. So...bear in mind where in the country you are preffing.

Good point. On my campus a micro mini would be a SERIOUS faux pas, hottie or nottie, and I'm all about individuality, but on some campuses recruitment is a good time to try a hand at the art of blending and standing out at the same time. (Incidentally I went to high school in the same state as undergrad and our prom dresses were short, too...but wearing those sort of things to recruitment would have been bad news bears.)

Someone somewhere else was talking about the short prom dresses. I think those things go in cycles. Then again considering a lot of the long ones I see are FORM FITTING the short ones are probably far more comfortable & easier to dance in.

And the pics Drolefille posted certainly confirm honeychile's comment about empire waists not being flattering. Yipes. Nothing against the girls, but this style really needs to take a hike. The only thing it accomplishes is being a comfortable eat-more drink-more dress.

the third round dresses and the pref. round dresses look too similar to be good examples for the pnms(something i have noticed on multiple sites). if i imagine the girls from round 3 switching shoes with the pref. round girls, the dresses look the same.

Those outfits are on par with what PNM's wore on our campus...maybe slightly dressier for pref. I always think it's better to be overdressed than underdressed (as long as it isn't ridiculously overdressed).

In case anyone was wondering, what Drolefille posted was just so you could see what my rush handbook showed! Those pictures are from my guide, but I couldn't figure out how to get the picture into a post.