All I can say is thanks for the whites alert.

I'm going to Convention this summer (thus I need whites) and I have *nothing* white in my possession at all.

Looks like it's time to stop at tar-zhay on the way home...

15-20 years ago, when I was in elementary school, there was no place to get hip, tasteful cheap clothes like Target sells today. You could go for the thrift-chic vintage look, but if you shopped at JC Penney for basics, well, it showed. Nowadays I go out in my Old Navy boot-cut jeans, H&M tank top, or Target workout wear, and let me tell you, I'll take the Pepsi challenge with anybody's $300 DKNY ensemble from Neiman Marcus.:D

Last year I did a large report on clothing manufacturers and what companies own other companies making their clothes in the same factories. Old Navy, Gap, and Bannana Republic are the same company, all designed by the same people and made in the same factories. The only reason for the price difference is because if you are told its upscale clothes you will think it is. Abercrombie, Hollister and Energie are also the same company. Yes Energie, that brand you can by in Walmart, TJMaxx and many other stores in a Abercrombie company. Made, and desgined again by the same people. St. Johns Bay, JCPennys collection is owned by the same people who bring you BCBG and Cache which are all one company. Just because clothing is expensive doesn't mean it is made better or looks better on you. I am wealthy, very, but my clothes now come from where ever I can find cuter clothes, my formal dress is from goodwill, 10 bucks, its also a Ralph Lauren, my pants old navy, walmart and Target. Money and greed is the ruin of our society, Someone wearing Walmart can look just as pulled together an proffesional as someone wearing Bannana. People need to realize clothing is just something to cover their bodies, not something decarling how important you are. Instead of spending all your money on expensive clothing, donate it to the scholarship fund for your Greek Organization.


Sorry thats my 2 cents

But it's also style. Banana caters to the office crowd, while GAP and Old Navy cater (mostly) to the high school and college crowd(actually, I think Old Navy is more for the "let's do one stop mass shopping for my family" crowd). You're expected to buy relatively fewer pieces at Banana and GAP than at Old Navy (which is why they have those shopping carts!--> Many parents LOVE Old Navy's convenient shopping for the August Back To School rush...I also noticed, at least according to their size charts online that "short" length long pants are shorter at Old Navy and GAP than at Banana, but that might be because Banana now has a petite line.)

In addition, while those bootcut trousers are all designed and made at the same place, the Old Navy ones are a poly blend, the GAP ones are cotton, and the Banana ones are linen...

This thread cracks me up. Half my clothes come from Target, and the other half come from Boston Store. I go to target for the basics and for an occasional "fun" piece that I only plan on wearing occasionally and wouldn't want to spend much money on. I go to Boston Store or some other semi-upscale department store because they have juniors clothes (which are the only kind I can wear) that don't look like they're made for a 13 year old!

Target rocks! for some of you who do not perfer Target like the majority fo this thread does then your snobby!


I was raised in a well off family ( full of dr and lawyers, etc...) and i was lucky to have clothes i wanted and shopping macys, broadway or robinsons-may was the norm. I am a mom now and i hope a lot more grown up and value conscious than i was back then and i find cute things all the time at Target and Wal mart and i LOVE LOVE LOVE Ross. I will shop those stores 98% of the time and will go to the Dept stores for my clinque or estee lauder or really upscale items if i need them. Business attire i fid things right at Ross and TJ Maxx.

As for Ritual and initiation for white....... if it doesnt look Tacky and it is white go for it... I dont think yoru dressing to impress anyone during ritual anyway.

HAHA, we had a girl in my pledge class make a dress for her and another one of our pledge sisters. It was a nice simple style, but the girl who made them had a tendency to like to, ahem, show off, so she made it pretty short. The problem is that she made it short for her pledge sister too, who has a regular build as opposed to her smaller build. Her pledge sister didn't try it on until the day of initiation! :eek: I thought something was gonna peek out the bottom!

I will say that once I shopped at Abercrombie because they were having that mad sale... I bought 2 shirts that I thought were adorable.

After wearing and washing one of them 3 times, I found HOLES in it. I will never shop there again.

Damn!

I got a pair of jeans at Wal-Mart for $30 bucks!! I like them. They are very comfortable and they look good.

I hate spending a fortune on clothes, especially when you know it will out of style next season.

This has nothing to do with Initiation, but Recruitment.

I once heard of one of our "rich" chapters where special fabric was purchased for a party, and each of the women had to get a dress made for herself from this material. One of the women spent $500 (1980's dollars!) to have a dress made, using over 12 yards of material!! I forget exactly how much the material cost per yard, but the whole concept was amazing!!

Dang no dress is worth or material is worth $500. I can go to Joanns and get white matte bridal satin and make a cute initiation /ritual dress for under $50 and make it

So back on the white dress alert...if you're allowed to do skirts and blouses for your ritual, GAP has a cute white skirt.

I have three ritual "outfits," my white skirt that I got for pledging, which is now way too short, but I got from Lerner's website for maybe $30 last year. I have a white GAP dress that was $14.99 on clearance last summer (mid-July) and a white GAP eyelet skirt that was $19.99 on clearance last June.

I wouldn't be caught dead in public in a lot of the clothes from Target, Wal-Mart, etc - because they don't mesh with my look. However, I don't really give a crap what other people wear anymore. I have a few friends who shop at Target and the department stores here (which are the suck compared to real department stores, but anyway...) and they usually spend more on clothes than I do.

Whites for initiation and ritual is just that, something white. The sisters at my chapter will sometimes show up with the most ridiculous white dresses ever cause they simply don't care. We have some dresses in our basement that we can just borrow as whites for the day to wear, its no big deal. We don't care really what we look like, just that we are in whites. Personally, my whites are from the Express and that is only because I needed a white dress for high school graduation to wear under my gown. If I didn't have whites I would not go out and spend a ton of money on them, I would just try to find the cheapest thing to wear that is appropriate cause honestly, how often do you wear a white dress outside of rituals?

If you need a new white dress, the best thing to do is wait until August/September. This is when the stores put their summer clothing on sale. When I pledged, I found my white dress on sale at Contempo for $10 (I think it was originally $39.99).
Ritual isn't a fashion show. It's supposed to be a bonding time with your sisters. I've never understand the girls who would go out and try to find the most beautiful and expensive ritual dress they could find. Nobody else is going to see you in the dress besides your sisters and if they are truly your sisters, they won't laugh at you for wearing a frumpy white dress. ;)