Alpha Chi doesn't wear white?!?
You know I always thought all the sororities on my campus wore white for initiation and pinning. But I guess if I think about it I've never actually seen any of them gathering to go into initiation; so it's just something I assumed.
I know that the color your wearing usually has significance to your ritual. I've heard of other sororities that all wear black. I wish we did. Anyone who has ever had to wear white dress, white hose, white shoes knows that you definitely don't feel attractive. I feel even closer to my sisters during rituals in small part because I know that they feel the same as I.
Yeah ZetaAce, generally in NPC what color dress you wear during ritual is not a secret. If they put something on over those dresses and everything else they do certainly is though. I hear rumors but I always figure they couldn't possibly be right. Some of the rumors are so wild!
At my school though you'd still need a white semi-formal dress for Presents (pronounced with emphesis on the E). I know not every place does this so I'll explain.
Presents is a semi-formal dance in the fall where the pledge class is presented to the chapter. All the pledges wear white and usually the actives wear black. Some chapters have the actives wear their colors, like blue. It's not like a debutant ball but that's basically the inspiration for it.
Our school tends to have the dances towards the end of semester but the school cross town usually has it the week after bid day. They also hold it with a fraternity so it's kind of like an exchange.
Other things that I would put on a list of clothes that every sorority girl seems to have:
overalls
khakis
black boots
the infamous black pants
business clothes-for formal meetings, but every sorority and chapter has different requirements for this so it would be hard to be specific. At least one suit though.
Since there's always a chance that a girl doesn't joing a chapter I wouldn't put too much emphesis on the white dress or formals. But everything else is stuff that if you don't bring it with you, you're gonna end up wishing you had anyways. Formals (like from your prom) can always be sent from home in time for the dance. And sororities generally don't have a problem with rounding up extra white dresses if you don't have time to get one of your own.
But a black dress every women should own!
So sorry that I went on forever!