Our Panhellenic Council Forbids Matching Outfits?!-Anybody Else?
 

Hi all!

I'm a new member, but I'll be active before fall recruitment. At our last recruitment workshop, we got the Panhell rules. In concordance w/ "no frills" policy, chapters cannot order/purchase identical outfits!!

Panhell defines identical as everyone buying the same item from the same store in the same color.

EXAMPLE: Our Recruitment Dir. cannot say "For 50's party, order the white button down shirts from page 34 of the J.Crew catalog, style A".

It's strange b/c I hear a lot of you ladies talking about identical pref dresses, and I'm like :eek: "wow!" I wish we could do that!

Anyone else dealing with this?

This is a TOTALLY new one on me!! I'd love to hear which campuses have this rule!!

Does this mean you guys can't order t-shirts from a Greek store or anything either? Because that would be wacked.

I do kinda see what they're saying in that everyone buying identical outfits can be a drain on the checkbook. Our Directors of Formal Recruitment have always been kinda trendy girls, and have always wanted us to go out and buy new expensive outfits and we've put our feet down on that. Not to say we dress like total slobs, but most of us don't feel like shopping at Abercrombie when we can get something the same (and probably better quality) at JCPenney's.

The "no frills" rules have been in effect for along time and up until I graduated still were. I just graduated a few years ago. If they are not rules any more-that is the new thing. I personally think it's inappropriate to expect everyone to wear the same thing. It is expensive, it is impractical and has nothing to do with sisterhood. Now if we all want to join the same cult I could see it.....

To clarify:

We CAN wear our chapter tees the first day. We made some violet and some white so we ALL wouldn't be matching.

Our outfits can be SIMILAR (i.e.-everyone in a brown V-neck top)
BUT not INDENTICAL (i.e.- everyone in the chocolate brown v-neck top from p. 234 of the Macy's catalog) It can't be the exact identical item from the same place.

There is a way around it:
For example, our philanthropy shirts are avalilble in 3 basic colors (navy,red,white) so we can all look uniform without technically matching.

So FYI, it's not as if we'll be @ recruitment looking like slobs or anything,lol.

:)

Say you have three styles of lettered t-shirts you can order, and everyone decides to order the same one. What happens then?

I've never heard of this, either. When I was an active, we were sent lists over the summer detailing the outfits that we were supposed to wear for each day of rush. However, the biggest part of it was stuff that 99.9% of us already had, and if someone didn't have it, they borrowed it from someone else. I hardly ever had to buy new stuff, and when I did, it was just like a cheap tank top or something. We never exactly matched, but we did wear similar outfits. I think it looked really nice. All the other houses on campus did this as well, so from my point of view it was perfectly normal.

My campus has the ULTIMATE no frills rush. No skits, no themes, no fresh flowers. We can't wear the same clothes. If you wear letter shirts the first night, they can't all be the same color. The same with Philanthropy t-shirts as well. Pref is the only night where you can wear similar clothing, but not identical.

We may get the same style of shirt, if we really like the design. We would just order them in 2 different colors. For example:If everyone likes the same rush tee design, we can order the shirts w/ the same design in 2 diff colors (40 purple and 40 white) that way, we don't all have the EXACT same shirt.

BASICALLY: Same shirt, different color OK.
Same shirts, same color, same store NOT OK

Hopefully you guys can understand better:)

They had something similar to this at a school where I was advising. You couldn't all wear the same exact shirt in the same exact color. First night you could wear chapter T-shirts, like if you have one screenprinted or matching letters. What we did was wore little polo shirts with denim. Some girls were red, others wore yellow or orange shirts. For the denim, no jeans, but capris and skirts were ok. So some wore capris and some wore jeans. It looked great and worked out fine.

We're allowed to wear matching shirts, like our letter shirts. We always order enough theme shirts for everyone (they come out of dues). We're not allowed to wear anything else that matches, though. Inevtiably, two or three girls are going to be wearing the same black cocktail dress for Pref, but if it's everyone, we could be in big trouble with Panhelleni

We're also not allowed to wear anything that could be constituted as a costume -- so, like, no matching hats, no completely matching outfits, nobody dressed up as the mascot, whatever. This year we did a country club theme and we all wore fake pearls, and there were some people who thought Panhell might come down on us for it. Fortunately, they didn't (and they didn't all match, so we could've probably gotten away from it).

Anyway, the chapter is really opposed to having to pay out of pocket for rush clothes, so we would never be able to say "okay, everyone go buy j. crew flip-flops in xyz style". We asked everyone to wear white bottoms for the same country club theme, and a lot of people got really angry because they didn't already own them. (I spent a lot of time explaining the "wear it with the tags on" concept. ;)) So we try and keep it to jeans or black pants as much as possible.

Elon is trying to enforce no-frills now, too :rolleyes: Personally I loved going to houses seeing everyone dressed alike. It showed unity, and it makes it easier in the crowded rooms to see where sisters were. Last year we all wore the same shirts, etc, but this year we could just say "wear a polo shirt in one of three colors and a denim skirt that comes to your knees." It's much easier to regulate proper attire when we all dress alike.

Here are the rules at my old school.
We can have:
1. Identical shirts, printed or unprinted, costing no more than $10.00 per member.

2. One (1) identical accessory/prop costing no more than $10.00 per member. Accessories/props include: shoes, hats, collars, belts, bow ties, and vests. Identical shorts, pants, skirts, pajamas, nightshirts, boxers, dresses, or jumpers are not accessories/props and therefore may not be worn.

So, the ultimate "no frills rush" doesn't allow y'all to get a discount order on ordering t-shirts.

Greek Doublespeak at its finest!!

That sounds like our rules to the letter.

We weren't allowed all matching. We were told: During round 2, we'll wear khaki slacks with brown sandals and matching brown belts, and a white/bright red/or teal blue polo (You'd be assigned a color). We were told how many pockets our slacks could have, etc.... then during Spirit Week, we would have "Dress Check" where each member would have to model every single wardrobe and accessory for each round for the president, RVP, FRC and Recruitment Advisor (as you know the UCF chapters are huge, so this took a long time in my chapter!). They would tell you if you had to make any last minute changes (down to taking some of the charms off your charm bracelet or getting a new outfit.) We would be shown samples of the general look or color they wanted us to get. This way, all the blue polo shirts were approx the same blue.

I have probably said too much. LOL. We did call our adviser the Rush Nazi.

I kinda liked this-- we were dressed the same, yet different.

It was culture shock when I went on to advise a chapter that bought identical clothing! But it was fun to shop over the summer with my sisters :)

ETA: It might be more complicated this way, but you also have the option of getting a Ralph Lauren polo, if that's your style, or one at Target, if that's your style.

I don't think my school had a rule against having identical outfits. It just didn't really happen. I think what my chapter did was pretty typical. We had rush t-shirts printed for the whole chapter and wore them at one round of parties. For the other rounds, we'd get guidelines like "black t-shirt and khakis" or "letters and jeans" or "black dress or pantsuit" for pref. We also did dress checks in the spring and again during work week so that we could buy any last-minute items the rush chair decided we needed.

No frills rush is a National Panhellenic Council thing. Most of the schools in FL, including USF where I go, have no frills rush. There can be no more than 6 sisters matching in any given day. And matching means "White Express tank top, Abercrombie jeans, pink ribbon belt, and black Reef flip flops." However, the whole chapter may wear white tank tops, jeans, different color ribbon belts, and flip flops.
On Philanthropy day the whole chapter is premitted to match, so most chapters have shirts done with embroidery, then everyone wears jean skirts, or khaki capris, or black pants. We are allowed to match for prefs as well, but that's just because all chapters wear white or black dresses. And most people don't have the exact same dress anyways. On bid day we wear bid day shirts and usually jean or khaki shorts, skirts, capris or pants. We usually wear shorts cause it's really hot in FL, especially standing outside in the Greek courtyard for Pi Chi and Exec revealing!

Our panhel goes even farther!

Chapters are not allowed to require members to purchase clothing or items specifically for recruitment, i.e. t-shirts.

So, basically, the chapters order t-shirts in say October and everyone wears them once before then ("see? it wasn't for recruitment!") and then everyone wears them during recruitment.

We have deferred recruitment too though and we are very no frills!

I don't know if our Greek Council actually forbids this or not as much as no one here would actually do it. I think more people would get freaked out if they walked in to a rush room where everyone was dressed all the same. Sororities will usually just get shirts made that they'll wear for one night of Rush. They'll do that and just tell everyone to wear jeans or something.

With as many different shapes and sizes that women are, I would think that you want each woman to wear something that is flattering for her shape/body type rather than something from page 348 in a catalog! Saying "khaki pants or capris" is fine, because then women can choose, one pleat, two pleats, no pleats, capris or full length pants, etc... based on what looks best on them! Women need to feel comfortable and confident during recruitment, which means looking their best! Personally, you wouldn't catch me dead in capris no matter how thin or young I was (cuz I'm old now) because I'm only 5'3, with a longer torso and short legs. Capris just look awful on me! A matching t-shirt or prop sounds fine, but just keep in mind that not all women look good in the same style!

Dee

MY sorority is an associate of Panhellenic at my school, so we only do info night with the other sororities. On that night we have to dress up like we are going to our chapter business meetings. I like it like that . We stand out from the other sororities.

We don't have bid day shirts made. We have a rush shirt made for Fall rush, since that is more formal, which we try to wear all week, if we can't wear the shirt all week then we will wear our active shirts (all are the same), convention shirts (also all the same).

I've never heard of our council barring a soroirity from dressing in identical clothing. I think it looks cute and extremely uniform.

I am in a latina sorority so we have white active jackets and we look so good when we all wear our jackets. Other GLOS can definitely tell when the GAO girls are at an event, the jackets make us stand out from the crowd and we get noticed by non-greeks

The idea behind the "no frills" NPC policy is to cut down on spending for recruitment. At many large school chapters were spending over $10,000 on formal recruitment. The idea was to cut down on the excess and focus on conversation and getting to know each other. Going a sorority should be about the women you will be sisters with, not who spent the most money or had the best decorations.

In regards to recruitment outfits - it's the same idea. They don't want you to require your entire chapter to go out and spend several hundred dollars on clothes that they will use only for recruitment. That is what they mean by costumes. Not costumes as in halloween, but an outfit that is specifically purchased for and used only during recruitment.

In an earlier post someone said they were having pref dresses made - this is an example of a no-no for no frills recruitment. It's not the idea of everyone being in the exact same outfit, it's the idea that you are requiring your chapter to purchase a special outfit and that it will be strictly for the purpose of recruitment.

Ditto

that's the way our chapter was - wear a letter shirt and khakis, or blue jeans,etc...
And our t-shirts this year we got in 2 colours anyway blue and pink since some women have a preference (I used to despise pink, and it is a colour of the other NPC group)

My first year on the other side, Panhel decided to cut recruitment down to four days. Day one was panhellinic skit night/orientation. Everyone did their skits for the rushees together and afterwards everyone did a meet and greet, the only sisters who could attend that night were the girls in the skit and the president and I believe they wore our UNLV Greek t-shirts. The Second night was go greek night so everyone wore the Panhellenic issued rush t-shirts and we wore black bottoms (no denim) and black sandals. The next night was philanthorpy and we had diffrent jungle print letters made. Then of course on preff we all had black dresses. So aside from what kind of bottoms to wear alot of the guess work was taken out of it, just an endless procession of t-shirts. So I guess you could call our rush no frills. Heck, we couldn't even have water for the PNMs

One of my favorite Rush Nazi's (funny, we called our Rush Advisor the Rush Nazi, too!) little "problems" was clashing colognes/perfumes. Only half of the chapter was allowed to wear it at all, and there were about 4-5 scents that mingled "properly". :rolleyes:

Does everyone else have the Rush Fashion Show prior to Recruitment, for their Rush Nazi?

Oh, we have a modified fashion show....basically the FRC comes to corridor and checks out everyone's daily outfits (we didn't totaly match, but we had guidelines of what to wear). If you didn't live on corridor, you brought your clothes to the CR to have them checked during Spirit Week.

I think we were told *not* to wear perfume at all on the off chance that a PNM may have been allergic. Maybe it also went along with not having clashing scents :D

Our recruitment was probably considered frills, but it seemed pretty whirlwind and laid back to me. First round was Panhellenic recruitment shirts with jeans/khakis (depending on the chapter) and black/brown shoes. Second round (philanthropy round) I think got into the two many women matching or something if we all wore the same t-shirt, so we went to wearing blue shirts with block letters and khakis. Third round (skits) we all wore black pants and white button down tops, unless we were in the skit, and preference round (fourth) we were all in black, but most of us had different dresses and styles so we didn't all look the same.

hey guys...
 

I know the term Rush Nazi is all in good fun but, I learned the hard way that some people don't find it funny at all.

Once at work I called myself the Sidework Nazi as a joke because I was checking people out and one of my coworkers got seriously offended. Just a reminder to use these kinds of "jokes" with caution.

We switched to no-frills at my school last year. They keep telling us it is slowly going everwhere, but I think it is going to be a LONG process. No more than three of our members can wear the same shirt on the same day. It gets really hectic organizing that. Lucky for us, Prefrence is considered more of the chapters ritual, so we can wear anything we want that day!

Hey JocelynC - "I'm a new member"....brings back memories, doesn't it?

When I read this I was like... Jocelyn has been around for a while.. So then I looked at the date and was like OHHHH.. haha

Was this your chapter's rule or panhellenic's rule? We never wore all matching outfits although we would all have the same theme on. (ie- UCF shirts with khakis, jerseys, bright color shirts, etc) I didn't know that we did that because we couldn't have matching outfits!

We had a rule kind of like that when I was at school. but our recrutment VP always got around it. We were told to wear v neck shirts in pastel colors one year. and some times we would get our list and it would say something like wear shoes that look like rainbows.

I smirked when I read that part of my post. That was 2 years ago! :)

Hmm.... I really don't remember-- but I am fairly certain it was a Pan rule because none of the chapters did matching. In the past we were allowed to wear jerseys on the first day, but never matching and we mixed it up with O-Team, CEL and other campus organization polos/jerseys. Then they switched the day's theme from "Ice Water" to "UCF Spirit Day"-- so we couldn't wear jerseys anymore. I think this made things a little more confusing for PNM's because every chapter wore UCF apparel for this round!

In my chapter, the individuals were responsible for procuring their own clothing according to standards set by the recruitment committee. For example, if on philanthropy day we were to wear chinos, brown open toed sandals and belt (matching) and one of three colors of polo shirt (red, white blue), you would be told over the summer which color you were supposed to wear. But it was entirely up to you to decide whether to get your polo shirt from Ralph Lauren or buy it at Target. So long as it was flattering on your frame and passed "inspection" during dress check, you were fine.


I was so suprised at UCLA when there was all this talk of ordering the recruitment clothing and going shopping with the recruitment adviser and the officers to try on options and decide what to order for the entire chapter! (Members paid for their own clothes, but it was all pre-ordered as a matching lot. The adviser had a family connection with a department store, so the chapter was able to get what they needed.)

I don't know what the intent of that is, but I know it would have made me crazy as an undergraduate. It was much easier to describe someone as "The one with the fuschia sweater", etc. than to say "You know, that girl with the big brown hair"(which was almost everybody back in the 80's) when trying to remember who was who. Although, we never got pictures of PNMs and I imagine at Arkansas they do.

Are these t-shirts, blouses, what? I think it would be OK to wear a t-shirt one day for philanthropy when you're doing crafty things, but I would feel a bit frumpish if forced to wear them every day of rush. Not only that - what if the sizing's wonky and they don't fit properly?

Ours forbids matching clothes from the waist down, and forbids hats and the like.

And while I'm on that, all the clothes I have to buy (pants/shorts/skirts) have to be new, with tags on when we arrive for work week. We even have to wear certain colors of bras (white or skin color only, black is okay for dress day :rolleyes: )

Guys view
 

At what point in this conversation are guy's heads supposed to explode?

Randy

Re: Our Panhellenic Council Forbids Matching Outfits?!-Anybody Else?
 

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