Rush Clothing for actives
 

I just received an email from our rush chair, whom I absolutely love and it was about the sisters ordering t-shirts/clothing for rush in september. All the ideas were voted on while I was not at school for the semester. Okay, that's not a problem. I know what ever the girls come up with will be great. I haven't seen the logos or slogans yet, but I know that they'll be great. My problem is that all the girls decided that they wanted to order matching shorts and baby tees and sleevless hoodies. Well I'd be all for that but I'm not exactly the smallest Pi Phi. I don't and can't wear baby tees and short shorts and sleevless clothes. I just feel I will be left out because I can't wear the clothes they have decided to get.

Has this ever been a problem for other chapters. Have you ever ordered clothing and have had sisters left out because they don't fit into the sizes? I don't want to make a big deal about it, but I don't want to feel left out because I don't fit into a baby tee. What are some ways around this issue??

I suppose a good way around this might be to have the designs available in baby tees and short shorts as well as regular tees and lounge-type pants...I'm sure even some of the girls who have smaller builds might be more comfortable being a little more covered up, so I'm sure some of them might like the idea of the regular tees and pants a little better. That way, while everyone could kind of mix and match what they wear, everyone would be wearing the same design. (Personally, looking from the rushee's point of view, it's a little intimidating when everyone looks the same...giving different choices for the outfits lets your individuality show a little! :)) Hope this helps!

I completely understand. This year we're wearing khaki capris one of the nights, and this causes two problems for me: 1) I am tall, so capris look like long shorts on me. 2) I am pear-shaped, so my hips & thighs look huge in capris (not so with flair pants because those balance out my legs).

Another problem that occured this year is on deciding one of the shirts. Two shirts that were being considered were somewhat low-cut (but tastefully so). Well, several girls complained that because their chests were too big, one of the shirts didn't look right on them. Other girls complained about the other shirt, saying that their chests are too small to fill them out.

Sadly, we'll never be able to please everyone, and I suppose we've just got to go with whatever looks best on the majority of the girls. I'm still not happy that we have to wear capris. I don't own any capris (yet) because they really look that bad on me. But I suppose there are other outfits we're wearing that look really cute on me and not on some other girls.

Last year I was exceedingly happy about all the outfits we wore (sooo cute!), so I suppose this is my year to not be so happy about it. Oh, well. The important thing is that we have fun, keep in good spirits about everything, and try our best to comfort one another when we get stressed out. :D

We've had problems one year when we ordered these cute baby-tees for our Island Phi-ver night. I thought they looked very nice but apparently when we received them, they were cut a little funny on most of us so most of us don't wear them (I'm just about the only one). But they made sure no one would have them too tight because if you told them you were a Medium, they ordered a Large, and so on. They were just cut kinda short but wide on some girls (I have a short torso so I was fine).

We have a few larger girls and they refuse to wear shorts for any Recruitment events, so most of the time we say that we can wear either. I hate to say it, but it sounds like they're a little more regimented about what you wear there. I'd just order a size that you feel you would be comfortable in, and try not to be self-conscious (I know, easier said than done). I wish I could help somehow. :(

I don't think our chapter is regimented. They aren't forcing me to wear the clothes. The thing that upsets me the most is that the choice was made for me. I wasn't given the option of ordering a regular t-shirt, and the shorts donj't come in the lounge pants. I wouldn't mind just ordering the baby tee in a regular t-shirt and forget the rest. I just don't have the option. It hurts because I feel like my sisters have excluded me.

I wrote to our rush chair about the sizes in the off chance one of the tees might fit. I figure if the sleeveless hoody fots I can always wear a sweater or cardigan to cover up my arms.

Ultimately if nothing fits I guess I'll have to go without.

Just heard back from our rush chair. She told me that everything was designed so that everyone would be able to order at least one piece of clothing. She's going to send me the specs of the clothing so I can see for myself. Hopefully I will be able to wear something.

I have the same problem as you, but in the opposite way; I'm extremely petite and small framed, so even the small shirts that they order for bid day and recruitment are huge on me. I feel like a dork with an oversized shirt on. I wish they'd make kid sizes too so I could actually look cute in one of our shirts lol.

What I meant by regimented was that it sounds like they order a lot of your rush outfits for you. Like for instance, we never order shorts. That's left up to the individual sister. For our open house, we will be wearing white button up shirts and jean skirts, but the style is completely up to us.

You should look into who you do your shirts with. For things like homecoming and bid day we use a local graphics company and we've discovered that we can order in kids sizes as well as adult ones. The girls LOVE that. I mean I'm 5'3" and even if I order a small adult shirt it still is too long to look cute. So I order a Child large and it fits like a cute shirt from say Abercrombie if you get what I mean.
And as for the theme of the thread, it's hard for a chapter when they have large differences in sizes to accomadate everyone. It has been my experience that there is always someone who is unhappy. So, as is America, sororities have to become democracies and do the best for the most amount of people. (While trying to keep in mind the majority ;) )

While I agree that finding something everyone can agree on and be happy with can be difficult, if the persons making the decisions don't make sure there is a size for everyone to fit into, they are't doing their job! Everyone should be able to get all the pieces that have been selected.

If everyone's supposed to have the same thing on, one or two people not dressed like the group WILL be noticed. Would you want to join a group that wasn't considerate of ALL the members??

I think that recruitment just might be where that "cookie cutter sorority girl" image comes from. And yes, it's very hard to find a style that everyone is going to look good in, but a good recruitment chair will have alternatives for the people who are either uncomfortable, or don't fit into the chosen clothing. and hopefully, your recruitment chair will also have some kind of fashion sense! ;)

Maybe there is a way that you can find a similar item to wear. I know that for our recruitment, there is a rule that outfits cannot be excessively matching as a panhellenic rule. So, for one day for example, some of the girls are wearing black capris, some girls are wearing knee lingth A-line black capri skirts, and the girls with great legs are wearing black (tasteful) minis. The differences, I think give us some diversity and don't make us feel like such a cult! Maybe you could look into that.

You know what might be cute? If you can find a sleeveless hoody that fits, you could wear a jean jacket over it and have the hood "hang out" of the back of the jacket. I think that would look really cute with a pair of yoga pants or other comfy lounge pants. :)

we used to do the we are all going to wear black and white. we would be able to choose which article of clothing (top or bottom) would be which color. we were also allowed to wear a skirt, pants or shorts. i think that worked out nicely. i look terrible in black so i wore black shorts and a white button down. everyone looked different but the same...and no one could complain!!!

For our recruitment outfits we usually have one shirt (one year it was two) that everyone must buy. For the rest of the clothing we have guidelines (for example, medium color jeans, black skirt, twinset) and let everyone in the chapter get what works best for them. In THEORY this is a wonderful idea (everything fits and we don't look so cookie cutter), but it is really hard to tell a girl that part of her outfit isn't acceptable during dress checks! One of the things we contemplated doing is selecting a few types of jeans, skirts, or whatever the items are and letting the people in the chapter pick from those... but this gets stickybecause people already have a pair of jeans they want to wear or they think that the shirt/dress/whatever is too expensive. I'm trying to finalize our clothing list right now (we have deferred recruitment) and it has been a huge headache!

I think that would be really cute. Unfortunately the hoodie only comes in M and L. Our rush chair did send me the specs for the baby tee and the XL fits sizes 12-16. It's a little smaller than me, but apparently they are supposed to be very stretchy so I might end up getting a baby tee afterall.

I still wish there were more options though.

Wow - the hoodie probably wouldn't fit me either then as I am rather busty and have really broad shoulders. You could always get the baby tee and try and stretch it before recruitment if there is time - I have a really cute hand-me-down one from my pledge mom that I stretched on a dressmakers model thing and it fits great now.

I wish some of the GLO clothing makers would offer more sizes - I really want the cute yoga pants but the large fits a size 8. Since when is that a large? :confused: One thing I sometimes do to get a cute "fitted" shirt is order stitch letters in a medium tee when I normally take a large - that way it's closer to my body but isn't the stretchy fabric that looks so horrible!

I hope that your sisters are more considerate of you in the future...it makes me glad there are a lot of full-figured women in my chapter so this doesn't happen.

I PM'd you :)

Yeah I know on RC Sportswear they had these cute little straight legged sweatpants and I wanted a pair but XL was equivilent(sp?) to a size 10.

I'm all for the cute little tops and such, and if I was smaller I of course wouldn't have a problem. However, it will be impossible for me to lose the weight needed to fit perfectly into one of those tees in a month.

Hopefully for winter rush I'll either have lost a lot more weight or they'll have some more options for clothing.

I will, however bring that up in chapter when we're all back at school. I would hate for any girl to feel excluded in any situation.

Those are the exact pants I wanted - someday they will fit me! :D

There are pants similar to those from RC sportswear from the company we are ordering our recuitment clothes from. It the American Apparel Company.

Here's the link if you want to check out the pants.Relaxe Pant

Thanks to Cherub for giving me the URL for the company.

Yeah, that's we do. Our recruitment chair will go out to a bunch of stores and then pick say a pair of shorts from 3 stores and say you must have one of these 3 pairs. The stores range in how they fit and how pricey they are. It makes dress checks really easy because if you don't have the right thing then we just say sorry we told you and then make them get the correct piece. As for making people buy something they may already have....It's just something that they have to do, it's part of being greek at the UA....

I feel bad for all the women who have such strict chapter rules regarding clothing. Whether you are on the small end or the big end you get screwed. My chapter was dominated by bigger girls and we've ordered shirts and not even been able to get a small! (i'm 5'1") I like the chapters that have guidlines but not ordering your clothes for you. I would love to have a shirt that ACTUALLY fits me for once! Sometimes this just sucks. :) oh wells! Good luck getting your clothing figured out, my heart goes out to you, it is tough!
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recruitment clothes
 

Our recruitment clothes are very stricktly regimented and we put someone in charge of dress checks whos not affraid to tell one of the girls that they need to change something, in a nice tactful way of course!

As for suggestions Victoria Secrets has yoga pants on sale right now, I think they were around $30 the last time I checked.

We had a similar issue with songfest** costumes last year. They started with everyone in tank tops, then later decided that the girls could all pick b/t tanks or baby-tees. It turned out really nice, I'm about a size four and 5'8' and the medium fit me with extra room. The not as delicately boned girls who ordered baby-tes were fine in larges and extra larges.

**songfest- is three moths of practicing to do a five minute singing and dancing routine in front of the entire campus, it's extremely competitive between sororities (ie it's not till april and practices start as right after christmas break), and it makes you hate your life especially in the last few weeks, but in the end you love it and sign up again for it the next year- basically not something everyone feels comfprtable doing in a tank