Double Lettering?
 

Ok, so I have this question: I've been told it's "bad form" to wear two versions of your letters at the same time (T-shirt and sweatshirt, hat and shirt, necklace & shirt....) why is that? I mean, I've heard little reasons like "it's bad luck", but I mean, is there a general, all over, widely-accepted reason? Or does not everyone have this rule?

i've never heard that before..... guess all of the sororities at Pitt have "bad form" because everyone wears their lavalier and t-shirt letters together all the time. Most of them wear lavaliers every day!

I never heard of that before. I mean, people wear their lavaliers, sweatshirts & jackets together - but the jackets & lavaliers are something you wear every day.

I would think that if (outside Greek Week or any other spirit-showing activity) you wore a sweatshirt, butt letter sweatpants, a baseball cap and carried a sorority tote, you would probably look somewhat silly.

I don't see anything wrong with wearing your letters in two different places at the same time. I have worn my letters on my t-shirts and on my cap at the same time. I used to wear my lavalier (before the chain broke and I lost the lavalier) with my t-shirts at the same time. I have never heard of that being bad luck at all.

http://www.handykult.de/plaudersmilies.de/sad/conf.gif

I have never heard of this either. But I am always in bad form, I wear my lavalier or badge everyday with a ring and I carry my sorority tote to work.

We had the rule (it seemed to be campus wide) -- we considered it bad form if you wore more than one article of clothing with letters on it.... like, if you wore a t-shirt and sweatpants with letters on. However, windbreakers were usually an exception, and no one thought it was double lettering to wear a lavalier or other jewlery with clothing.

I've never heard that before either. I usually would wear my sweatshirt and carry my tote bag, baseball hat with letters, t-shirt and tote bag, etc.

I don't think it's bad luck your just promoting your organization better ;)

I have heard of this when you're wearing two sets of stitched letters at the same time. for example a pair of lettered shorts and a shirt or a sweatshirt over a letter shirt. But not with the necklace and such because I wear my lavaliere, ring, and bracelet every single day and then if i wear letters I'm all Chi O'ed out!:D

I have heard people talk of it being bad form to double letter - but it was generally in the form of wearing a shirt and a hat, or I would think a shirt/hat with those new-fangled "butt letter sweatpants" (thank you for the term 33girl!).

When I was in school it was common for us to wear a lavailere and letters, or letters under a lettered sweatshirt.

When I was told that double lettering was bad form it was more like it wasn't "Cool" - like being the guy who wears the Tshirt of the band he's going to see.

That's my take on it....

Allison

The way my Big Sis explained it to me was that it's bad luck to double letter or to sit on your letters. Lavalieres, badges, other jewelry don't count for double lettering, it's just things like wearing a tshirt with letters and a lettered sweatshirt over it. But she's done that plenty of times.;)

If it's bad luck to sit on your letters...how does that work out with the butt letter shorts/pants?
Not that I've ever particularly liked that trend anyway... :rolleyes:

many was the day I wore an APO sweatshirt over an ASA tshirt, or vice versa. :) or my ASA lavalier or jacket w/ APO gear.

I used to do a sweater/hat combo. All my bros would be like "Gee, what frat are you in Stan?"

Back in the early days of the Sigma Nu Colony at UCO, the director of expansion/recruitment was visiting. He made it a point to let us know that wearing Sigma Nu merchandise in two places (e.g. hat and shirt) was not a great idea. It's been a generally accepted principle as far as I know in my chapter from then on.

I've worn letters (and party/bid day t-shirts) with my DG flip flops lots of times, I'll say to myself, yeah I'm DG-d out, but I don't care.

I try not to double-letter, like carrying my AXiD bag while wearing a PSP shirt. I do wear both lavaliers at the same time, though -- they're strung on the same chain!

We consider this bad luck....I did it one night when I was freezing and borrowed a sweatshirt but besides for this I would never wear two pieces of clothing with letters at once.

I was taught that you shouldn't wear a shirt and jacket, or shirt and hat, or other combos (unless it's like the DAY after you cross, lol).

Otherwise, I was taught that you can double non-essential para (hats, shirts, jackets) ONLY with essential para (an umbrella, tote bag, bookbag).

Lavaliers and rings don't count, to me, because they are usually unobtrusive.

And this isn't bad luck, I was just taught that it was tacky.

It seems to me that wearing a sweatshirt and a shirt isn't really double lettering since when you have the sweatshirt on you cannot see the shirt, so it's not like anyone but you knows you have two different lettered items on...

Also, I have not worn APO letters and APhiA letters at the same time. Maybe I will once I get old and can say "to the devil with protocol!"

I've never heard this as a rule, but I've made it a personal rule. I love my sorority to bits, but I feel weird being decked out in tons of Pi Phi stuff. I guess I don't want to appear as that psychotic sorority girl who has nothing else to wear besides sorority stuff. However, in this rule I don't count wearing a shirt with a lavalier.

I really don't care if I wear more than one article of clothing with Phi Gam letters on it. I just say "I'm having a Phi Gam day" or "I'm all Phi Gam-ed out."

TigerLilly- How do you wear 2 lavalieres at once? I usually pick and choose, but most often my Phi Gam lavaliere and I feel bad because both Kappa Phi and Phi Gamma Pi are dear to my heart. What do people say when they see both lavalieres?

Anyway, there's my 2 cents.

I have never heard of wearing "double-letters" bad luck! But of course, we have a local run greek life here. *shrugs*

From reading everyones posts I guess I'm screwed....I have on 2 Lambda letter shirts, my TKE hoodie on, along w/my TKE lavalier, and carrying my bookbag that has Lambda written all over it.

And yes...it's friggin' cold here..that's why I'm wearing so much clothing..

In my chapter we were told when we were initiated that we shouldn't wear two sets of letters at a time but its definitely not a universal AEPhi thing because the group of the girls I was hanging out with at convention had never heard of such a thing.

WE had tons of people who would double or triple letter...like a t-shirt under a hoodie with flip-flops, your lavalier, and our jackets. But then again, at a school where people wore overalls and Carhartt to class all the time, it probably wasn't a huge deal. ;)

Definitely not a universal AEPhi thing - I never heard that as a "rule" :)

Under certain circumstances, we would wear t-shirts and sweatshirts together. For instance, we had t-shirts printed for our major charity fundraiser every year, and in the week leading up to the fundraiser we were "strongly encouraged" to wear the shirt or letters every day, and particularly to wear the shirt on the Friday. But that fundraiser was usually in February, and you cannot run around Boston in a t-shirt in February :p so we'd wear letter sweatshirts over the t-shirts, and take off the sweatshirts once we got to class. As AXWhoah pointed out, you only see one at a time.

But most of the time, even though it wasn't a hard and fast rule, we just unconsciously didn't double letter, unless it was something like a t-shirt and lavalier.

Same here. :D

In my chapter, we were told to not wear double sets of letters...

ALSO, we were told to NEVER wear a set of letters inside out. It was like an upside down crucifix it was so wrong!!

To this day, I cringe when I see someone wearing a shirt inside out and I can see their letters thru it...

dang, the fires of hell would have been burning nonstop every Friday in Clarion. Inside out letters were the order of the day, back in the day. :)

I think this was part of the whole Flashdance/inside out ripped sweatshirt thing, however.

You would have loved being at my school during rush, then! :p

IFC used to set up a room in the student center called "Elsewhere". It was a place for rushees/PNMs to get away from all the craziness of rush. GLOs weren't allowed to contact PNMs who were in Elsewhere. There were things like Play-Doh, coloring books, general de-stressing type stuff.

Naturally, sometimes GLO members need to destress during rush too. They were allowed to enter Elsewhere, as long as they didn't talk to PNMs and they removed any letters they were wearing. For practical purposes, this meant turning them inside out.

ok, </hijack> :)

At my school we called it double dipping, everyone did it.
But it would be bad to be decked out in thongs, pants with short under, a tee shirt and sweatshirt over top with a hat on.... Oh and don't forget your greek flip flops-
that would be TOO much!

Everyone at our school called that "Pikin' it" because the Pikes always wore double letters...

So someone wearing lettered flip-flops, a stitched letter t-shirt, embroidered letters-on-the-bum yoga pants, an embroidered windbreaker, and an embroidered visor (along with a lavaliere and ring), and carrying a lettered or embroidered tote or messenger bag would be a bad idea, huh? ;)
That seems like a bit too much for me, but I don't see anything wrong with wearing jewelry and one set of letters. Everything in moderation :).

I was taught the same thing! ;)


And, am I the only one who thinks that letters on the butt is just plain wrong? I'm sorry, I don't understand the logic...why would one want to SIT on their letters? :confused:

I'm against the whole 'print on the butt' thing to start with, including letters on the butt. One of my sisters just ordered a set of butt letters when we were at Something Greek on Sat and I am goign to pick them up when I pick up my jacket *I can't wait!*, but I don't like them at all. They are my letters, why would I sit on them?

Same here, one of the sororities here gets sweatpants with their letters on the burr for all of their pledges to wear that they all have to wear on certain days (they're called "pledge pants") and no one else here who's Greek understands why A. you make pledges wear letters and B. you put them on the butt. That's kind of disrespectful to your organization to sit on your letters. Also, two years ago, the print that they used for the pants was the American Flag which is so much worse because not only are you sitting on your letters, but you're also sitting on the American flag.

I remember my first chapter as a new member, they gave us this whole PR presentation on "double lettering." They basically told us that it just *looks* tacky to have your Kappa bag, with a Kappa button, Kappa shirt-shoes-hats, etc. They told us that if we're wearing a Kappa shirt and want to use our tote bag, just flip the letters to the inside. So I'm just used to that whole thing, and now I see how tacky it looks. I remember seeing girls from one specific chapter quadruple-lettering with all the stuff they got on Bid Day... and it just looked so TACKY!

I still wear my lavalier, but I rarely wear it with just a t-shirt anyway... mainly with a shirt that has a nice neckline to show off the lavalier.

Okay, enough talking about this silly stuff... just wanted to share! lol :D

HAHAHA, I thought that was just at my school!

I never heard of anything in regards to double lettering. I am quite sure I wore t-shirts and sweatshirts simultaneously--at one point in my college career, I think all my t-shirts were from some fxn or another! And I always wore my lavalier (though we called them "drops"). I guess I compare doubling up on letters to coordinating your clothes...it's okay to wear a red t-shirt and red sweatshirt, but when you start wearing it with red pants, shoes, and accessories...well, unless that is the look you are going for!

This is seriously the first I've ever heard of it.

I have the "butt prints" as everyone calls them. I like to wear them for volleyball games. I'm sure not sitting on them when I'm diving for a ball! ;)

But I probably "double letter" fairly frequently because I got a pair of Alpha Phi flip flops and they're so comfy that I wear them most of the time (and it's Florida).

I mean yeah, if you wear letters all over your body, it's going to look silly. But if you're tastefully wearing a shirt and maybe a pair of flip flops, I think it's alright. But I'm pretty uncouth, so... :p