Colors
 

Every Greek org has certain colors right? Like black and gold for instance. Now, NPHC groups take these colors pretty seriously and you would never see Alpha Phi Alpha in like red or blue or something like that, but with NPC and NIC groups I see people walking around campus with letters that are multicolored or have different designs or something (like plaid). Are colors not that big of a deal to NPC and NIC? Can someone enlighten me? Thanks.

Colors are a big deal, and so are what they stand for. In the NPC, though, many groups have "family colors" in their family trees. (i.e. I'm Phi Mu. My big sister gave me my first pair of letters, which was a black shirt with animal-print letters. Her great-great-great big selected them. So when we have get togethers, I wear my family letters, so does she, so does her big, so does her big's big, etc. It's just another way to feel included within the group.)

It's less of a faux pas, though, to wear non-pink Phi Mu letters. Sounds like in the NPHC it's kind of a no-no.

Well considering Beta's official colors are "delicate shades of pink and blue" you can guess that we don't make to big of deal out our colors or trying to wear them exclusively.

In NIC and NPC orgs, I think that most people don't really care or identify groups by color...part of that may be due to the fact that those GLO's aren't so well recognized by the general non-greek community compared to what I see and hear about NPHC groups and the African-American community.

At best, I think that for NIC and NPC group colors are special to the members for their significance, but don't serve any purpose in identity...

that's my $.02

{edit} Also I think another reason is that many orgs share the same colors further complicating the issue.

My Problem is that LXA guys and for the most part all of the Greek Orgs. do not wear Colors, Badges or anything for recognition!!:(

This has always Pissed me off! When I was there, we wore our Names/Colors, and Badges Proudly as well we should. This helps Promote not only LXA but all Greek Orgs and hell we all know we can use all of the help we can get!:)

Ditto what Betarulz! said. I think it'd be kind of difficult to get offended by someone else wearing 'your' colors when 'your' colors also belong to the 4 houses down the street from you.

My chapter definitely has a lot of shirts with silver and bordeaux, but we also like to make fun shirts in other colors. For instance I have a yellow shirt (because it's my favorite color) with a blue star pattern (because I'm a geek). I made my little sister a pair of orange shorts with flame colored letters because she's obsessed with orange.

For events where we want to look unified or extra nice, we definitely all whip out the silver and bordeaux. But sometimes it's fun to express your creativity and uniqueness with your own individual shirts. It also gets PNMs attention that we have all of these crazy shirts floating around and have fun making them.

While I did (do) own letter sweatshirts in non-Delta Zeta color combinations, I wouldn't buy, for example, a red shirt with yellow letters.

Oddly enough, one of the few sweatshirts available in our DZ DeZigns catalog is orange with navy blue letters. I've never understood why they have that; maybe there was a sale on orange material??

Our chapter letters are black shirts with turquoise and shiny silver letters. I don't own a set, but I wish I did. I do, however, have a tote with the turquoise and gray letters on them. I also own several sets of brightly colored letters. I try to get a variety of the strawberry patterns, since it's one of our symbols.

I used to buy a couple of things in different colors but that stopped when some girl asked me if I was in Delta Sigma Theta because the black tote I was carrying had my letters in shimmery red embroidery (all she could see was red). So I explained to her what sorority I am in and what we believe, and she was intrigued. But from now on I'm only buying para. when it's in my colors, I don't want some any org. feeling that I'm disrespecting them by stealing their colors. :)

For us and the other sororities on campus, wearing letters in another color isn't a big deal. KLP colors are navy blue and gray and our unity letters are silver on a black long sleeve shirt. AST has red on a black shirt. Only thing is that when we write our letters and for stuff like AOL/AIM profiles etc, they're supposed to be in the proper colors so I like wouldn't write them in red, for instance. I think we were supposed to do that when we made our paddles too, but we weren't told about that and so we just painted the wooden letters whatever colors we wanted to.b

When I was in college, I wouldn't think of getting a maroon/bordeaux sweatshirt since that was Alpha Phi's color. It is a distinctive color. Some of my sisters and I did however get blue (AZD and Phi Sig), green (AEPhi and AKA) or red which SDT used. Those colors are more common. Our standard chapter sweatshirt wasn't even purple which I will never understand, but that's another story. ;)

Aahhh Greekchat....the bastion of inter-Greek knowledge

Hahaha that's great :p
So like are you not allowed to wear red, for instance, because it's one of the colors for Kappa Alpha Psi?

HI There,

We have actually been asked this because we are the only sorority on campus that is able to wear whatever colors, etc that we want. All the other groups are NPC or NALFO and traditionally can only wear their letters in their colors. We asked our advisor about how we're able to wear our letters in whatever color or pattern we want. PhiSigCloud could probably explain this better but here's what our chapter was told: Because one of Phi Sigma Sigma's Core Values is inclusiveness we embrace the diversity/differences/individuality, etc of all women. One way that we express our individual personalities is by wearing sweatshirts/tshirts with whatever colors we like.

However, many Phi Sig chapters have "Chapter/House letters" that every member of the chapter has. In our chapter some of the sapphire families have started the tradition of certain material for shirts that all their family members use ie. I'm part of the star family and we are all slowly getting sweatshirts made with the same blue and yellow star material.

Interesting question. I can wear whatever I want, but say, you'd never see Alpha Phi Alpha in red on a blue background or even on a red background. Only black and gold (well sometimes people have different interpretations of gold so it ends up looking from yellow to orange).

as my sister said, Phi Sig doesnt have any rules.

My one sister bought an orange and blue shirt cos she was dating a KDR...

We have our own shirts to reflect our own personality, and we also do have family letters. My family letters are leopard on a black shirt, and we also have pink on grey sweatpants... People know thats ours.

But we do own our bright YELLOW coats with blue letters...

Some color combos are just boring. If we got mad at every person wearing yellow and blue at Clarion, we'd be in trouble seeing that those are our school colors!

And I do know that we say that TBS's colors are blue and white, but when around our district and nationally, we have to say white and blue due to the presence of Zeta Phi Beta and Phi Beta Sigma :)

ooh gotcha thanx for clarifying that yea we don't have any rules on that, only our crossover letters always have something to do with the sorority, like one of our symbols is the star so the crossover letters for my class had stars on them

I've never really even thought of this before...

All of my sisters and I have letters in every shade of the rainbow, and so does every other sorority on campus, I think. I know one DZ that has at least 5 different tote bags that are all adorable and all unique. My tote is black with purple letters & silver backing and silver "Beta Kappa" underneath because I loved the colors together, and we've used it on many display tables.

I have 'nalia of different colors. I have items in white, black, and khaki (in addition to pink and green). However, my letters will always remain pink or green (or both). They are the official colors of my sorority (although the interpretation of pink and green vary from soror to soror), and I will only wear them. Also, just because I use my official colors does not mean my 'nalia is not creative. The possibilities are endless.

Well, in Phi Mu Alpha, our colors -- Red, Black and Gold (we use white, too) are a big deal. While we don't have a rule on the matter, I've never seen a brother wearing letters or having other lettered paraphernalia that is not in at least two of these colors. Even when an unusual print material is used for the letters, these colors will be in the print. The fact that red, black and gold are not, so far as I know, used by any other GLO and are therefore particularly distinctive may be one reason we tend not to use other colors. It doesn't hurt, either, that they are easy to come by -- or that they look damn good together. ;)

Correction for myself: The background might be of different color, as my soror pointed out. For example a blue denim shirt with letters or a khaki hat with letters. But the actual Greek letters should be black and old gold.

Okay I get what you're saying when looking at ordering letters in all the different colors i.e. that they should be correct colors for your sorority/fraternity.
But what about greek101.com's site which offers the colors (from which you'd choose your own) but it also offers letters in Animal print styles and numerous other patterns. Would your fraternity/sorority not order letters like that?
N.B Though MysticCat's post was quoted, question not directed to any one poster :).

I think one of the most attractive recruitment outfits (for a very relaxed round) for NPC sororities is nice jeans and their block letter shirts...in whatever pattern they wish. The reason is, like many other people have said, it showes diversity with in an organization. Even if the diversity is just taste in style! I would be scared to death to walk into a house and having EVERY girl wearing the EXACT same thing, right down to the toe nail polish, but that is how it often happens...

By the way, my favorite letter shirt that I own is White, with Red letters that have anchors printed on them...

Red and White are my school colors...

The anchor is DG's symbol!

My sorority, Gamma Sigma Sigma, is a little different.
*thinking of a PC way to put this*

I've been in GSS for 5 years, and what I have noticed is that our chapters which are predominantly AA will wear NOTHING but Maroon and White, our colors. I pledged at a chapter like this. My shirts/line jackets only come in black, white, khaki, or maroon with the maroon and white letters, or vice versa. Like abaci said, though, that doesn't mean my naila isn't creative--I have stuff with either white roses or penguins all over it :D

Now other chapters of GSS that are not predominantly AA have GSS letters shirts of all colors, the letters are all colors. It's for the same reasons many of you have already listed--the "family" colors you guys talked about. When I first saw it I didn't understand it. And my sisters didn't understand why I wore maroon and white all of the time either :D All I could say is, "Well, this is how my chapter does it" :D

Well, obviously, I can't speak about any other group, but in my experience, Sinfonians would not order letters like that unless the pattern contained red, black and/or gold. An example: I had (well, I still have it but I have expanded while it has shrunk) an oxford grey sweatshirt with paisley letters on it. But the paisley pattern has red and black (and a little gold) in it, and the letters have a black border. I would still have to say, though, that again in my experience, Sinfonians have a very strong preference for letters in our colors. Jerseys, for example, almost always seem to be black with gold-trimmed red letters, red with gold-trimmed black letters, or red or black with plain gold letters.

FWIW.

When I was an active in the seventies, it was pretty common to see Greeks wearing colors other than their own because people wanted to wear colors more flattering than their group's might look on them. You see that even more now and I think it's due to "families" choosing their own patterns or colors (Ballerina's XO family, for instance, wears bee letters) as well as the proliferation of patterned letters that may not match someone's colors....bees wouldn't look so great with my wine and blue.

Everything gamma girl said is pretty much also true for APO, although I have seen a handful of non-AA chapters stay true to blue and gold apparel only.

I've also seen APO para in school colors, and honestly, I think it's nice for conventions and what not.

I can definitely co-sign with my Soror on this one. I also have para with background neutrals, such as black, khaki and white. The letters are always going to be pink and green. It's just following protocol.
:)

As for ZTA, there is no protocol regarding the colors of our letters. At my chapter (when I was there) everyone had the same jersey. It was white with gray trim around the neck and sleeves and the letters were turqoise on a gray background. Bigs also gave their littles matching letters. Other than that it was up to everyones taste.

Sigma Alpha Iota
 

In SAI, we wear every color and pattern combo under the sun! For instance, I have a red t-shirt with block letters made from fabric that has sheet music and red roses on it(our flower), but I ALSO have a navy blue shirt with stars, a bright blue shirt with pink block letters that has multicolored flowers, a tote bag that is black with block letters that have instruments all over them, etc etc. We have no rule about it, and in fact we prefer to wear different varieties of letters because we feel it shows how diverse we are. And while the letters may not be in our colors, they represent who WE are.

#1, that doesn't make you gay.

#2, so what if they ARE gay?

Honestly, I think a lot depends on what your campus does. Our whole sorority has a t-shirt that is white with purple and gold letters. We wear them for recruitment, we wear them during greek week, etc., when we want to look unified. But wearing different patterns and colors is all personal preference, as we have that freedom. BUT, we would never get a shirt that the other sororities had as their "unified shirt", for instance, ASA's red t-shirts with red and white letters or Tri Sigmas white t-shirts with violet and white letters. I had the coolest sweatshirt, that was navy blue with kelly green and white letters, and it was awesome!!! We didn't have KD though :)

Really? I know that wasn't the case at Valparaiso-- brothers there wore basically any color combo they wanted. :) As did their lavaliered girlfriends. For example, my now-husband and I picked out letters for each other when he lavaliered me, and his are a blue and old-gold/olive paisley on old-gold border on a blue sweatshirt, and mine are a purple/green/gold/black plaid on black border on a purple sweatshirt. (Which I didn't really know were LXA colors until my roommate whipped out her own set of that plaid on a green border on black sweatshirt!) Other Sinfonians were also comfortable with other color combos, either in plain dark colors (like old gold, maroon, navy, sometimes white) or plaids of some sort.

I *do* like my husband's traditional set-- black sweatshirt, and bigs/littles alternated red on yellow-gold or yellow-gold on red. Very classy. (He does not have one of the "official" sets of red on gold t-shirt, though.)

The store that we usually bought those letters from went out of business years ago, and now does large-order traditional clothing. It's a shame. Many sisters either order gear from the official ADPi/etc. site, or hand-sew the letters (with varying results).

As for me, most of my shirts/sweaters are the SGR colors of royal blue and gold /yellow. I have one sweater that I call my 'X-mas' sweater because the anchor color is a dark hunter green and the 'ouline' letters are navy blue and the 'inside' letters are dark red/blue/white/green plaid. I also have a t-shirt where the anchor color is gray and the 'outline' color is blue and the 'inside' colors are split in red and white (for the gamma and the rho), but the sigma is blue with a white star, it is suppose to represent the Texas flag. I love Texana. So, for me I guess you can have colors and / or a combo of colors as long as it is not obviously another NPHC orgs colors. Like, I would not get a shirt with any AKA -pink/green, DST-red/white and ZPB-blue/white combo.

Like most NPHC groups I stick with my colors. Especially if I am wearing royal blue then I make sure I have a gold accent, wear one of my many poodle pins or I wear my SGR lavalier.

At my school also the Sinfonians have whatever color they want.

kateshort and AlphaFrog, I stand corrected. Let me modify everything I've said by saying that, in my experience, Sinfonians tend to stick to red, black and gold. But obviously, my experience isn't nationwide, so it very well may not be representative of everywhere. And given what I know of the strength of our Kappa Sigma chapter at Valpo, I wouldn't for a minute question or criticize how they do things there.

Thanks for teaching me something.

For the BGLO's...Are school colors out too? I know that I have a ton of orange and blue Phi Mu stuff.

Also, for the girls...what if you buy someone else your letters? For example, I would never get a guy pink and white clothing. I was going to buy maroon and white shorts for a pledge son, but I thought it would look too "Alpha Phi," so I just defaulted to buying my letters in his colors.

Well, I do have a maroon sweater with black outline letters and a paisley (?sp) inside letters where the background color is white - these are my school colors, maroon and white, Texas A&M.

There are four NPHC sororities and they are very well known, at least in the Black community, so someone in the Black community should not make that mistake. For someone who does not know the colors and they give a shirt in the wrong color combo, then I would think that the item may be accepted and never worn, or politely returned. I think a good rule of thumb is to find out the org's colors and get a shirt made in those colors.

(Print, clip and save info below. ;))

NPHC Sororities - colors:

Sigma Gamma Rho - royal blue and antique gold
Delta Sigma Theta - crimson and creme
Zeta Phi Beta - royal blue and white
Alpha Kappa Alpha - salmon pink and apple green

I don't believe Pi Phi has any rules against what colors we are allowed to get letter shirts in. I have them in all kinds of combinations. I think for my chapter it's more about the letters themselves than the colors. I of course have a set in Wine and Silver Blue that I picked up from the Pi Phi Marketplace, but I like having the option to have letters in all kinds of colors. My favorite set of letters is a black hooded sweatshirt with white and baby pink letters. I got a black sweatshirt with white and baby pink gingham letters for my little sis as a family set almost!

Jess