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Originally posted by DGMarie
What does all the embroidery/symbols mean (well, unless secret!)
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Here is a basic run down of what the embroidery and sewn-on stuff means. Keep in mind that I am talking about my sorority, so some things may be slightly different for some other groups. Also, there is a lot of flexibility, so not everybody even in the same organization has the same thing in exactly the same spot on every jacket.
In Theta Nu Xi, jackets are typically black or white with the big Greek letters down the front right side with the lavender on top and Carolina blue on the bottom. On the left side, over the heart, they usually have the crest and the sister's name. You can see pictures
here.
On the left sleeve, as you can see in the pictures, is a stiched on Greek letter that shows the chapter the sister pledged into. My chapter is Gamma (and these are my beautiful sisters!!). Sometimes sisters will have the name of their school and/or the year the chapter was founded embroidered on the left sleeve above or below the chapter designation.
On the right sleeve, as you can also see in the pictures, is the term (SPR for spring, FA for FAll, or SU for summer) and the year that the sister pledged into the organization. ln our organization, we have a special kind of respect and reverence for sisters who pledged into the organization before us.
The back of the jackets (which you cannot see in any of the pictures) generally has the sister's line name first. A line name is a name that the rest of the sisters in her pledge class give her. The meaning of ours is secret (my line name is Egyptian Breeze) except to other sisters. Unlike the pledge names given in movies like Animal House, the line names actually have significance. Usually under the line name is a big number. Our pledge classes are VERY small by design and our intake process teaches pledges to become VERY close to and dependent on the other ladies in the same class. Without getting into too much detail, I'll just say that the number reflects part of that. Often, under the number you will see the pledge class's line name. That is, instead of just calling a pledge class the Beta class, they may be called something like Millennium Project (the name of my line).
Again, all of this is sort of general, and people to vary this in any number of ways. For example, some of my sisters have 1997 sewn on the collar of their jackets so that when they wear them with the collar turned up, everyone can see the year the sisterhood was founded. Also, some sisters have their line name on the front of their jacket, the name of their line on the back, then their number, then some sort of symbol to represent their line and their place in it. One of my sisters from UNC, for example, has six butterflies across the bottom of her jacket, and since she was the 5 on her line, the fifth one is on a blue background while the others are on no background at all.
Again, none of this is really set in stone, but it might give you some sort of idea about what you are looking at when you see someone in a line jacket. Because our pledge process is unique and designed to build extremely tight lifelong bonds, our jackets reflect more than just membership in the organization; they reflect the people that we went through the process with as well.
Sorry if this description is confusing. Perhaps some other folks in organizations with jackets can help clarify!
Cheers,
S