White Dresses Question
 

I have seen pictures of other Sigma Kappa chapters from Initiation & the other ceremonies that we have to wear our white dresses and something stuck with me.

At my chapter, white dresses cannot be off the shoulder or have too much skin showing around the chest. Some of the pics of girls I have seen have them wearing strapless or spaghetti strap dresses. I remember being specifically told that the dresses must be tasteful, modest, most importantly, you have to be comfortable enough to wear it a lot.

Is it only my chapter that enforces this no shoulders shown rule or are all Sigma Kappa chapters supposed to follow this???

Thanks!:confused:

I think that the same general rule applies to most Sigma Kappa chapters: not too low-cut, off the shoulder, or spaghetti straps.

A lot of pictures that I see where the white dresses don't fit the bill are from Bid Day. Where a lot of groups ask that you wear white (or pastel, in UK's case) but don't specify a style.

This is horrible, but I don't even remember if we actually had a rule like that. To the best of my recollection, we didn't have a steadfast rule but I think everyone kinda knew better. I can think of maybe a couple that had spaghetti straps, but they were tasteful. I have no problem with style as long as it's tasteful style.

Re: White Dresses Question
 

That's interesting! I have never heard that before, but I think that it is a good thing.

I know that in my chapter that we have had girls wear strapless dresses, but it was very tasteful. We also have girls that wear dresses with spaghetti strapes. I know that NHQ has certain guidelines for wearing white, so you might want to check those out too. But I really do think what your chapter has is a good thing.

My chapter is VERY specific of what we can and cannot wear. Since lots of it is based in ritual, I can't post ir here but you SigKaps know what I am talking about. I had to get my dress approved b/c it had a side slit that went up to the knees.

If you look in the handbooks portion of the For Sisters Only area, the ritual chair's handbook has a discussion of what is appropriate attire. PM me if you need help in finding that.

My chapter has always been very strict when it comes to white dresses. Pants are absolutely not allowed. We are required to wear white panty hose and shoes, no exceptions in fact we will send you home (we don't have a house or across the street to buy pany hose if you do not have them) We also require long dresses no short dresses here. We do have girls that have spaghetti straps and strapless but we make sure they are tastful. No jean material is allowed. This is in our code of conduct and is not necessarily national policy.

At UCA the Sigma Kappas are the only ones lucky enough to get to wear black dresses for ritual.

Wha....? How is that possible?


ETA: Wait, I just saw in another post that you're a Tri-Sigma, so are you sure you have your stories right about Sigma Kappa?

My Thoughts exactly!!

My chapter inforces dress code :)

White Dresses a MUST! And in great taste!
At one time, several chapters would have everyone in the same style of dress. (Usually hand made by a local seamstress) Alums would pass down their dresses, or donate them to the chapter for future ladies.
I attended an intiation where a Past National President was also attending. I thought she was going to have a fit when she saw what some of the young ladies were wearing. The PNP was a stickler for details, but never said a direct word to any of the young ladies. For the next five years the dress code was drummed into everyone!
Remember, your pics go into the magazine and on your web pages, for all ( and parents) to see. Let us show everyone we have Great taste!

black vs. white dresses
 

I just know that on the nights everyone is wearing white I see them wearing black. I don't know, maybe they wear both?? I'd have to ask one of them. ^_^ About me being a Sigma, I like to browse around other sororities message boards and see what is going on in the greek community. Yay for greek unity!

Re: black vs. white dresses
 

Not every sorority is having a ritual at the same time I'm sure. Maybe they dress for a different ocassion? Or maybe you are saying "ritual" but don't really mean a real (secret & private) Sigma Kappa ritual. The contents of our rituals are private so there should be no way for anyone outside of our sisterhood to know the happenings of our rituals.

Ok thats what I get for trying to talk about a sorority that isn't mine. ^_^ I saw Sigma Kappas tonight in white dresses so my bad! Sorry ladies.

For my bid day & when I pledged I had to wear a dress that sounds very similar to what you described. I'm sure the dresses you wore are beautiful but the dress I wore had a large skirt on it-almost a train. My mother had made it, and I had to wear it so it wouldn't hurt her feelings. :( I looked so different than all of the other girls in their (much) prettier white dresses. But honestly, I was just so happy I didn't care. :D

We can wear pretty much anything, I think, as long as it's in good taste. There are girls who have floor-length long-sleeved dresses, some girls who have strapless knee-length ones... there's a lot of variety, perhaps even a little too much. Everything's tasteful, though. We also keep the fact that we wear white for ritual a secret on campus. The other sororities don't, but we do.

if u research it we have policies on how to wear your whites and its pretty much no strapless, so spaghetti straps and WHITE not off white not ivory.

If you have ritual questions read the ritual book. If it says to do it then you do, if it does not say it then dont do it!!!! Just do what it says. As we were told at convention through the ritual workshop, ritual is spelled out. If you say "well its does not say in the ritual book if we can do XYZ then dont do it! If you should be it will tell you.

SNAPS TO THAT!!

At convention there were numerous girls wearing strapless and spaghetti straps. The length of dresses is only dictated to those participating in the ceremony. It does say it must be white and not ivory it also says no pants.

one of my collegiates wore a strapless and was told by a former member of National council (forgive me cant remember whom) that it was inappropriate. Many did get by the "dress checks" that were done but I did see numerous girls approached by seasoned SK people regarding their dresses.

Its a ritual not a fashion show, modesty is appropriate.

I can guarantee you that no one from my chapter was wearing a strapless or spaghetti strap dress as we have very strict dress codes. So strict that when girls go to convention or cots for the first time and see others dresses not so appropriate they want to change our dress code. We had girls asking us why all of our dresses are long. I saw some extremely unappropriate dress at convention strapless and short everything hanging out like they were clubing.

Bumped to add that five of us in my pledge class had the exact same dress. One of the girls bought it in New York because she couldn't find anything she liked here only to come back and find four of us wearing it! :p Great minds think alike.

Haha, I don't have a dress at all, I wear a midcalf length pleated skirt, a white tank top and a white cardie. White was not in style when I was looking for clothes...but then it was February-March time so...

I have a full length strapless dress. I've never had anyone say anything to me about it being inappropriate.

You're lucky, my chapter is strict on dress code which eliminated a lot of choices.

If you did a strapless dress at our chapter, you needed a white cardigan.

Mine was a strapless sundress...but I had to wear a cardigan and panty hose :(. My real dress (the one that didn't come in time for initiation) has little sleeves and is calf length. The only thing is that it's totally see through so I need to find a slip. haha.
Lol everyone still has the same dresses here. There's not too much selection in gainesville...

hmmm
 

My chapter didn't allow any cardiagans or anythig like that. The dress absolutely had to have a 1-inch thick strap, at least.

I roomed with one of your alumna who was an advisor at MIT during convention in 2004. I'm blanking on her name though. Both chapters collegiate delegates were very jealous of what some girls are allowed to wear. My own chapter pretty much let everything fly as long as it was white (cream passed) and was past your fingertips. We did have to wear white hose though. UGH! I think they may have gotten rid of that rule. I'm not sure.

My chapter might not even wear white dresses.

*confused


I hope they tell us soon, we need to dress shop !

they didn`t tell us anything specific, just that it should be knee length. They also suggested if you`re.. well endowed... not to wear a tubetop because you might *pop out*.

xP

You wore white for pinning, no? White dresses are mandatory for all SK ritual.

Heh, it's so funny.. We keep our whites a secret on our campus, so I see it up here and I'm like "AAH! Shhhh!"

I think everyone on our campus knew that we all wore whites except one chapter (ADPis I think?) for pledging. If you see a bunch of girls in all white or black and white or all black then it's either "Presents" or pledging/initiation/*insert your alum cermony here*

Its weird to me that you'd keep it a secret, I'm sure people see enough girls wandering around in all white to figure it out. Especially if you have a house/dorm floor that most girls live in. :D Or if its out of season! ;)

Presents was your formal? And you had to wear white?
ugh I hate my white dress sooo much. It's majorly ugly and makes me look even paler.

I hate the fact that they don't let strapless dresses in. Strapless dresses look more prude than ones with straps. The dresses with straps that I tried on were very very low cut, whereas strapless dresses just go straight across. I have to wear a sweater over my strapless dress (which shows NO cleavage). Whereas my friends are nearly falling out of their dresses, but they don't have to wear a sweater because they have straps. It makes no sense.

Nope, Presents was our semi-formal and we wore all black :D Same with most of the chapters on campus (for whatever their semi-formal was). So we just all kind of knew that XYZ wears white for ritual etc.

I've always found the different dress codes standards interesting. For initiation it's pretty well laid out in the ritual chair handbook. But that doesn't mean all of the chapters adhere to that, of course. And going slightly off topic, the dress code for chapter meetings seems to vary even more wildly. Besides just requiring pin attire, my chapter used to have a rule that you had to wear nylons if it was under 75 degrees but we had a chapter consultant tell us that was completely made up and we never had to wear nylons to chapter meetings. And the chapter I advise requires shoulders and toes to be covered which was a complete surprise to me.

My chapter was pretty lax with enforcing the dress rules. Most of the girls had spaghetti strap/sleeveless dresses (mine was a halter). The did have to be completely white though (no cream allowed). We didn't enforce the hose rule either. Some sisters wore sweaters over their dresses, but usually only when they were cold. The new members often wore white skirts or white pants for pledging in but sometimes they wore sweatpants turned inside out if they couldn't find anything else. We were always told not to be seen in our whites outside of the house (i.e. girls who didn't live there changed once they arrived). It was always funny looking when we went out to have cigarettes on the porch right before initiations etc. because you could tell we were all wearing white underneath our fleece jackets/sweatshirts/etc.