Only PNMs in Black Dresses Allowed
 

Are black dresses TRULY the desired and expected attire for rushees at Pref?
I know every girl looks good in black, but as someone who is trying to buy minimum amounts of clothes for recruitment, I have some perfectly cute et colorful dresses in my closet now. I know there is no "uniform" for recruitment, just guidelines, but everything I've ever seen about pref had PNMs preparing for a funeral. Are colorful outfits discouraged?

Side note - I remember feelng underdressed when I went to the pref parties at my old university. I wore a really nice semiformal, and other girls were actually in prm dresses. No way I'm dragging out the sequins...

MTSUGurl,
I have personally never gone through formal recruitment on the PNM side, however I was a VERY avid reader of the rush threads last fall (if that counts for anything!), and remember most all the comments made by GC'ers to pnm's regarding pref dresses included wearing a "different" color to make them "stand out" since most pnm's would probably be wearing a black dress.

I don't know if this helps you or not!

Maybe some of the more seasoned GC'ers could chime in !

I'm so excited for you! :)

I remember reading comments in my rush thread from girls telling me NOT to wear a black dress to pref so I would stand out, since the sisters would be in black. I wore a maroon dress.

GOOD LUCK!!

You need to find out the specific guidelines for YOUR college before you buy a dress for pref night.

At my school, PNM's are specifically told to please NOT wear a black dress on pref night. In some sororities, the actives are wearing black dresses for pref ceremonies, and we want it to be obvious to everyone who the rushees are and who the sisters are.

Typically, in terms of pref dresses you can't go wrong in something slightly atypical--so you get noticed "in a good way"--but not something that's too far off the beaten path. You don't want the same dress from Ann Taylor (or wherever) that four other rushees in your group will be wearing, even if it's cute.

We (sisters) always wore black cocktail dresses for Pref, so you don't see many PNMs in black. I wore a cute sage green church-type dress when I preffed, and it was fine.

Yes I agree. They told us as pnm not to wear black b/c that is what the sisters would be wearing and they wanted us at a glance to be able to tell a pnm from a sister :)

I wore a red dress to pref, and the sisters ALL knew who I was. But, be sure you are in the same style as the other PNM's...for example, mine was a short cocktail dress, but that is what everyone wears at my school in the midwest.

I also encourage you to look into colors OTHER than black... in my sorority, all the sisters are wearing black, as are most of the PNMs - so it's a whole lot of black. The girls wearing color really stand out and get noticed.

I remember one girl I preffed, Diana, was wearing a very colorful dress, green and blue - she stood out and looked really unique and pretty - someone we wanted in our chapter.

Also, I think every woman in my chapter remembers little Rachel during Pref. This girl is tiny and adorable, and on Pref day was wearing a black shirt and black pants, but with a wide bright pink sash/belt. When she stood up to put her iris in the vase in the middle of the room, you could almost hear all the sisters think "We want her!" - she looked so pulled together and classy, but fun all at once.

At my school I went to two prefs, at one house all the sisters wore black, at another all the sisters wore white. Pnm's wore whatever color they wanted, I wore a pink/maroon skirt with a black top.

~Sarah~

I'm casting another vote for "not black." At our school, sisters wear black, and probably 75 percent of PNMs wear black, so a non-black dress will definitely make you more memorable.

As someone before me said, though, you DON'T want to stand out by wearing a prom dress when everybody else is in cocktails, so make sure you find out from your school what's expected on Pref night.

I was thinking on the lines of this for another thread, but this might be better. Put me down for not wearing a black dress, too, if your school gives you the option. UNLESS!! You look absolutely stunning in it, and spice it up with something like the bright pink sash that KerriMarie mentioned - you want to be noticed & remembered - but in a positive way.

What I had considered posting originally was under the thread about hints for rush, especially pref. As a rushee, I blushingly confessed to my rush crush that I was wearing my lucky dress especially for that party. I later found out that the sisters found that precious, and was a huge point in my favor!

Good luck!

Many of the sisters at houses wear black during prefs so the Rho Gamma's at our school will tell them NOT to wear black.

Wear something that you look good in and feels comfortable on you. Prefs are usually long so you don't want a dress that's too tight or a dress wear the staps keeping falls down.

I always noticed the girls in the colorful dresses. So many people wear dark dresses so when a girl would come in wearing white, hot pink, or something bright, I definitely took notice. It makes you stand out more.

MTSUGURL-
I am not sure what our guidlines for dress code are yet, but I do remember people telling me to "dress for rememberance" meaning where something that makes you stand out. So, it seems the other girls posts on this board prove to be very accurate!! Let me know if you hear of anything....

Kara

I wore a black dress to pref night as did every other PNM who was rushing. This wasn't required by any means, and I only remember one dress that wasn't completely black. It had small white pinstripes on it.
None of our houses that I am aware of wear black on pref. night so that wasn't really an issue. However, the August heat was awful in those black dresses. Between parties PNMs are stuck outside with only a small tent to sit under for shade. However, the black dress tradition reigns and most likely will stay that way for years to come. I think a lot of it depends on your school.

Just be tasteful! No prom dresses, no bridesmaids dresses, and NO CLUB dresses -- you are not coming to pref to look for guys -- so look classy and present yourself as such. You should be remembered for how you appeared during the other rounds -- someone noticed you and wanted you to come back to pref - otherwise you wouldn't be there.

My caution about scarfs, sashes, etc. At the school where I pledged, it was VERY common for the women rushing to wear the color of the sorority that they liked - if they liked Phi Mu they would wear something pink...ZTA they would show up in blue....us, they had something red, etc. It got to be where throughout the process, we would notice what colors people were wearing and think "hmmm, does she want that group?" -- I know that sounds weird, but the PNM's were very proud to say that they wanted to be an XYZ and by wearing the colors, they would kinda be like putting that out to the sisters. In many cases, it worked!

At our school, the pnm's are told to wear anything but black. I think all the girls at our pref last year wore something light. One girl even had a cute sun dress with cherries on it, so we all remembered her easily. At GMU, pref is a sea of sisters dressed in black, except AOPi wearing red. I guess put me down as another 'no black' vote.

To play devil's advocate here ... the sisters should know who each other are, so it's not as if they won't notice that you're a rushee. And if you're in black you "look like a sister," which may make it easier for them to picture you as one.

AXOAlum,with my luck, I would've innocently worn the wrong colored scarf and sent the wrong message.:rolleyes:

Last year we got this gorgeous sapphire blue dress for Ballerina but at the last minute she chickened out about being different and went out and bought a black one. BlazerCheer's was black with a small red cowl...it was an Express dress, maybe some of you saw that style last year. I just didn't want them in unrelieved black like a couple of little widows!

No you wouldn't have -- recruitment was about a month after the start of fall semester, and you KNEW what the deal was...if there was a question, the PX would have told you. Like I said - it was really messed up!!

LOL -- stupid me! I thought you said BlazerCheer wore a black dress with a small red OWL -- hahaha!! I thought - hmm... wonder who she was trying to impress?! hahahah!!

See what lack of sleep does for a body?!

The dress sounds gorgeous now that I have read your description correctly!

edited to add: Fuzzie - that's what I was trying to say! Thanks for putting it short and sweet :)

You have all made me considerably happy...

I've been rearranging outfits all week. I dropped my summer class, so all I have to do other than work and church and the drastically reduced social life since everyone is out of town is plan my rush outfits.

I too thought Carnation said OWL....

:)
Crystal

ROTFLMBO!!!! I can not even imagine the Chi Omegas' shock if someone came to prefs wearing an owl!!!!!!

I know a girl who actually told one of the Chi Omegas during rush that their letters would look really good on her, but only if they were in different colors. An oh, by the way, why didn't they have a CUTE mascot? I absolutely CRINGED when she told me that. She didn't have to worry about wearing black or owls either one to their pref - she wasn't invited.

"why didn't they have a cute mascot?"

hee! I always think it's funny when girls judge a SISTERHOOD on colors and mascots. I know if I wasn't fond of sailing I would have never have become a Tri Sigma (JK):rolleyes: . Besides, soroities choose their mascots or symbols based on qualities or significance they want it to have for them. I would much rather have an owl for a mascot because of it's reputation for being wise (just an example) than a bunny just because it's cute!!!
(no one here has a bunny for a mascot do they?, if they do I'm sure that it has significance):)

Let's just say that if sororities were chosen based on colors, I would not be a Gamma Phi. Your colors/symbols/etc really do grown on you though, because I'm starting to like the brown and mode, and AGDs like squirrels, etc...choose the sisters, you can work with the colors! :D

zeta tau alpha has the bunny mascot dont they?

Umm... don't think so. Maybe that's just a local thing somewhere.

I think ZTA's bunny mascot isn't national, but it's not really local either -- a lot of chapters use it, although not all, and it's not official.

oh ok. i know of a number of chapters that have the bunny mascot.

You are SO right! I wish I had a nickel for every pnm whose first question was about the colors! I seriously think that's why we rushed so much against Kappa! (blues)

I admit that I was very glad that ADPi had pastel colors, though. I imagine that, if Phi Mu had been on our campus, I would have liked them, too!

Another thing is the pin - the "symbol" pins like the key, the anchor, the quill, the arrow, etc - I think more pnms are enthralled with that, too.

What was that thread--I think I started it:confused: --about ridiculous reasons you cut sororities? Like you didn't like their colors or their mascot sucked or they had too many nicknames? I was ROTFL about some of the reasons people gave!

ahh yes. my friend from high school only wanted to be in the sorority that had the same colors as our high school because she already had lots of clothes in those colors. sure enough that's where she ended up, although i hope she had a few better reasons by that time. :rolleyes:

as for pref dress, i wore an all black dress and felt like a dork since i matched all of the sisters. i sure wish GC (and the Internet in general!) had been there for me in 1990!

PNM's are not expected to wear black! The majority of the sorority women wear black on pref night, but I've never heard of any rule or preference for the PNM's to wear it.
As for what you DO choose to wear - be tasteful!! I've seen too many women come through in less than tasteful attire, and it really reflects on you (IMHO).

Thanks Heather! I was hoping you'd chime in. Last year I went to the information night before rush, and they wore black dresses for the fashion show, and made it sound that that was the best attire for Pref. Thanks for all the wonderful advice!