Clothes?
 

This may be an odd question but, are there certain colors you "should" or "shouldn't" wear? obviously not crazy prints and things, but do you want to be noticed or blend in? ( and by noticed i mean wearing bright colors). and also... if there is one sorority i am particularly interested in(because of involvement not a stereotype) , is it smart to wear their chapter colors "by conincidence"?
thanks! i am rushing next month and im starting now to get all my clothes together! : )

NO.

Please do not wear a particular sorority's colors or symbols...
A) You'll turn off other chapters, and since it is MUTAL SELECTION, that's not a good thing. You don't always get your #1 choice.
B) It looks stalkerish, not flattering.

Good luck.:)

I would follow whatever your panhellenic outlines as appropriate attire. As said in many threads, you want to put your best foot forward and look appropriate for the day. I always like the idea of a special piece of jewlery to make you stand out -- like a memorable bracelet or necklace. As for the colors, I never even noticed if a girl wore our colors to a party, and if I did I would have just chalked it up to coincidence. The year I was a recruitment counsler pink was a very "in" color, so lots of the girls wore pink, but I don't think that necessairly made anyone think that they wanted to go Phi Mu.

I think it depends on where you're rushing and what you're wearing. Nautical themes are very in this year, so most people wouldn't automatically assume that a girl who came to the first night or recruitment wearing a sailboat sweater from J. Crew only wanted Tri Sigma and nothing else.

Pink a popular color, and not very obvious...but if a woman showed up in blue & gold, wouldn't you wonder about her...just a little??;)

If she showed up wearing a yellow and blue striped polo shirt from jcrew...not so much, since its a bit of a preppy combination.

If she she showed up with a yellow shirt, light blue cardigan, and navy blue pants we would think that it was weird.

I'd go with whatever colors make you look and feel the best.

I would not purposely wear a sororities colors especially some of the more blatantly obvious combos. I'd also avoid purposely wearing any sorority's symbol/mascot. It can come across as presumptious for that Chapter and it can turn off the other ones. Unless that happens to be your favorite color/object/animal, then it could be a great conversation topic.

Something else to keep in mind, a pnm might have a preconcieved notion she wants to go ABC but once she's in Recruitment realizes that XYZ is a better fit for her. You never want to do anything that might limit your options.

Wear what you look good in. The house already knows their colors and may not even notice you wearing them. Make yourself look good, and let your personality shine through, that's what's important.

And i would say stay away from all black. It'll be hot out, and that's creepy. Actually, all of any color would be weird. and day glo colors. that's weird, too. (unless you are in to that stuff...be yourself. don't dress how you normally wouldn't just so you fit in and then realize you'll either have to buy a whole new wadrobe so you fit in the rest of your life or dress how you normally do and not be happy...)


But definitely think about getting a signature headband or something...a girl last year wore the same J. Crew headband most of the week and I spoke to her on the first day and commented on it because i have the same one...whenever I was walking out in the next days I could easily pick her out of the crowd...it made it easier to go to my sisters and say "hey, you know Susie PM with that cute J Crew headband? She's soooo awesome/hot/funny/caring!"

oh...and maybe don't have your mind made up about a house before you've gone through recruitment. I had my mind made up (through visiting websites and knowing actives) and then it completely changed the first day of recruitment.

OK, when I first read this, I thought you were talking about something like this and was going to say "what has this poor girl done to you that you're trying to destroy her rush?"

Then I realized you meant something more like this.

LOL

haha...with the first option you could definitely talk about your passion for tennis, though...that'd be a good ice breaker :D

While we are on this topic, I will share a story of WHAT NOT TO WEAR to a recruitment event.... (which is also under the Weird Recruitment Stories Thread)

We had close to 400 girls go through spring formal recruitment. The whether was on the chilly side since it was January, so girls weren't super dressed up, but still usually looked very nice. Elon often pushed girls to make sure their name tags were noticable or that they would wear something to make them stand out - esp. if you had a common name. (One year we had 2 Megan Rogers, 2 Ashley Browns and a Tess & Jess Fowler -- no relation, etc.).

In 1999 we had a PNM come through recruitment during first round. She was decked out in Pink! She had a pink shirt on, pink legging pants (you know, the kind you wore in elementry school when they were cool!), white socks with pink pom poms on them, and pink flats. To top it off she was wearing a "pink ladies" jacket...ya know, from Greese! And all she talked about was how she wanted to be a pink lady! (i don't know if she realized she was in the AZD house and we have nothing to do with the color pink except for our rose!) Needless to say, she was cut from everyone...even from Phi Mu.

So I implore PNMs: Do not do something like this to get a sororities attention!!!

LOL! I had a girl tell me last year (after finding out pink was one of Phi Mu's colors) during recruitment that she was going to suicide us because pink is her favorite color. I mean, pink is my favorite color too...but still...

PS, i love a girl in stretchy pants. :p

I just had a Daria flashback...


Oh my God, I'M wearing strechpants!!!
Leggings, Stacy, you're wearing leggings.

I think black is a great colors to start with, but I would be a little creeped out if a girl came to our party in all Black and Gold....

Anyways, remember that you will not always have time to change between parties and you want to wear something each round that will showcase you as an individual!

feeling good being you
 

Wear something that you would normally wear but more dressy. Wearing something like their exact colors in my opinion will distract from you. They already like their colors, they are trying to decide if you are for them. In addition, don't wear things that you would not normally wear like hats, head to toe pink, exaggerated makeup. This is not a time to experiment. One time this girl wore a very strange hat and all I could remember about her was her hat. Let your personality make the statement rather than strange fashion. Wear what makes you feel most confident and most like you because it is such a exciting and nervous time that you want to feel good in your own skin.

The key is to have common sense. I wore red to my AOII preference party, but it was a pretty dress that I actually picked when I thought I was going to be a rebel and join Kappa Delta to annoy my sister! Ha! Anyway, sororities don't own their colors, but that being said, showing up in interesting color combinations that are obviously inspired by a particular group...say brown and light brown for Gamma Phi Beta...would look stupid. If you like red and are going to an AOII party... so what, but as others have said, don't throw on a panda pin as an accent!

I don't even think that members of NPC groups usually wear their colors unless it's part of a theme.

Put together great looking outfits based on what looks good on you, and don't worry about it being a groups colors one way or the others. (I think it would be foolish to not wear a combination that looks great on you simply because it was a groups colors, just as AOIIAngel said.)

I've posted about my rush nightmare on another thread - I had a blue dress with red polka dots (it was the 80s! it was cute!) that was THE EXACT SAME DRESS as Gamma Phi Beta's actives wore -only theirs were red with blue polka dots.
It's funny now, but then . . . not so much.

That is hilarious! My dress was nothing like the horrible bridesmaid's dresses that AOII wore that year. I swear they picked a shiny red material that you make throw pillows out of to make this dress with ruffles at the shoulders that looked like wings (and it was 1993!)
Don't you wish you'd bought the red dress with the blue dots instead so you'd have your rush dress for the next year?!

That was the last year for the polka dot dresses - I don't know if I put the nail in that coffin or not . . . :rolleyes:

I wouldn't go crazy with the whole matching the sorority you want to join or anything, but I don't think its going to hurt your chances either.

When I rushed last year, the National Panhellenic Council at my school held a informal ice cream social for all the PNMs who wanted a little more info on the sororities. I was running really late when my Recruitment counselor came to our floor to get us, so i just threw on the first few things I saw. Well, I ended up putting on a pink shirt with a green polo over it, and a light gray sweater on top of that. I knew I wanted to join DZ, whose colors are pink and green, but thought nothing of what I had on. As it turns out, it actually got me noticed by one of the upperclassmen who were also at the social!

Like I said, I wouldn't go crazy but if the sorority your joining has colors that are similar to what you would normally where, then dont shy away from wearing those colors or color.

it's great that things worked out for you. however, we have witnessed cases where that would backfire on a pnm-especially if the pnm was naive' enough to purposely dress in her #1 sorority's colors andlet it be known that she did it on purpose.

At my school, they have "recommendations" of what to wear to each round.

They are:

Open House: Khakis/khaki shorts, jeans, denim skirt, and a solid colored shirt

Philanthropy: Essentially the same type of outfit as Open House, maybe a little bit dressier (again, a solid colored shirt)

Theme: Casual sundress/slacks outfit

Preference: Semiformal dress

I feel like if someone wore the colors of my sorority, it's more of a coincidence than anything (like if they were wearing a sundress that had a pattern with a specific chapter's colors; I feel like it wouldn't be a huge deal at all unless they make it one).

Bottom line - let your clothes be a reflection of YOU, don't try to dress (or act, for that matter) a certain way in order to attract the attention of a specific chapter. If you're fake through recruitment, then you will more than likely end up matched to a chapter that you're not really made for. And do you really want 4 years of that?

Another helpful idea is to go to the websites at the colleges and check on their "pictures" of recruitment. I know the Southern schools have lots of pictures posted to give PNM's a good idea of how the girls dress for each round.

If a girl wore a cute pink and blue shirt (maybe even with bronze jewelry....) I would definitely not think "What a loser, she must be way too into my sorority". When you have 14 different chapters on a campus, I think it's tough NOT to wear someone's colors!

I don't really understand why I keep seeing people say not to wear any sorority's colors. For example, if someone shows up in a blue and white outfit, it may be and most likely is because she thought the outfit was cute, not because she wants to desperately be in XYZ and those are their colors. Almost every color is a sorority's color. How can you assume someone is being stalkerish by wearing a certain color combination?

It depends on how distinctive or common the colors are, and if they are head to toe in the color(s).

If a PNM was decked out in "scarlet and straw" (or any shade of red and yellow/gold) from head to toe at a school with a Chi Omega chapter, it might look suspect. But a pink top with a white cami underneath hardly looks like she is trying to impress Phi Mu.

And if they wear them day after day.

I mean, the girl who wears a purple shirt EVERY DAY OF RUSH should definitely frighten the Tri Sigmas.

White and black are exempt.

IMO, "dressing down" or not "lady-like" is more the issue. I don't worry so much about colors.

:)When I went through rush, I preffed three sororities, Phi Mu, ADPi and AZD. I loved ALL of them-because the girls in each chapter were great! I knew that wherever I went-I would be happy because if the chapter liked me enough to extend me a bid (knowing I could have easily been called up to Iraq again-and pulled from school)....then-that was a chapter I would call home.

I didn't put too much thought into colors because I went into recruitment with an open mind. I didn't listen to stereotypes much because when I rushed-I was 21 and looking for a "sisterhood" not necessarily a "party"...but, don't get me wrong-at PSU...it can tend to be one big party every weekend...which I loved, too.

On pref. night we were told to wear cocktail dresses. Pink happens to be my favorite color. I had a black cocktail dress but, it showed too much cleavage and I wanted to look appropriate for the event. I pullled out another cocktail dress that was white with pink flowers on it (I bought it at the Deb Shop). I loved it because it made me look even more tan and it complimented my body.

I never thought twice about it and no one said anything to me. I stood out from other PNMs because many of them wore dark colors but (keep in mind I was first in my family to ever rush a sorority-let alone really go to college)...Well, the next day I received a bid to the sorority I now call home...Phi Mu! So, it can work out but, as the DZ poster stated-I did it not even thinking (even though I loved Phi Mu and they were one of my top choices)...Good Luck!

Haha I accidentally came to Alpha Gam's pref in a red dress. I really had no idea that's what they wore, but it scared the other girls I was preffing, apparently. I was told later that they thought I did it to show preference.

I wouldn't recommend doing that for that reason...also because it's presumptuous, and I know I've NOT wanted a girl for that very reason. If she thinks she's in automatically, she's probably a diva and a brat. That's what wearing the colors on purpose says to me.

I would wear whatever is "you". Follow the guidelines given by the Recruitment team, but make sure you stay true to yourself. I personally do think bright colors or some kind of unusual (but appropriate) clothing or jewelry helps. It probably won't sway anyone's choice, but it will make you more memorable. And memorable is a good thing.