dress Checks

[dzsaigirl]

rush clothes are sized and ordered at the beginning of the summer so that they can be ordered in time. Usually this needs to come in with enough time to make sure everyone is the same size still...ahem...and to make sure they got the order right. We got pref dresses this year from David's Bridal and they will be the standard for at least a couple more years since they were an investment. Let me think about cost...probably around $200-ish for the clothes and then the pref dress which you use again is $100 and you had to buy your own shoes and have them approved (sandals, loafers, heels for the different days).

A way you can get around the cost is to have just the shirts ordered and then dictate what they wear on the bottom. Like black slacks, black belt, black shoes....stuff that people probably already have to minimize expense. But when you do that, you definitely have to do in-person clothing checks in the beginning of preparing for rush and a week before to make sure they still fit and that they haven't gotten worn out looking.

[UofIL AXO]

Our chapter tries to pick clothing that generally we already own so we do go out of control buying new things, though it is an excuse for a weeks worth of new clothes. A friend of mine in another chapter had VERY strict guidelines for rush and had to spend quite a bit on new outfits.

It's funny how obsessed we get about OUR rush clothes because the rushees are doing the exact same thing, and does anyone care THAT much?

[greek girlie]

In my chapter it seemed like people would gripe about needing new clothes for rush. I was always excited about it. It meant we got new clothes and it was almost always something I'd wear again.

It's funny how obsessed we get about OUR rush clothes because the rushees are doing the exact same thing, and does anyone care THAT much?

That was alwas my arguement when people complained. Girls get all new clothes for rush and then complain when they need to buy anything for rush on this side. If rushees are going to this much effort we should be doing at least the same.

[baylorchio]

We rush in January so we have to dress appropriately for winter weather (although it is always HOT in parties.) I help with dress check and I feel mean but at the same time the requirements are pretty clear...i mean, what part of black do they not understand?

During formal rush, we have three days:

Slide Show/Video Day: Black pants, our jerseys (yuck! but panhel requires all the sororities to wear them at least one day during rush!) and black shoes...most girls wear their black boots

Skit Day: your skit costume or a black suit. It is sort of stuffy but it looks really nice. Also, the rushees are always dressed in cutey outfits so they can look around and instantly she who is a Chi O and who is potentially going to be in their pledge class! One note, your black suit has to close high enough that you don't need to wear anything underneath (sometimes that is tricky!)

Pref Day: black dress with sleeves (because it is january and because this eliminates girls have deodorant all over their black dress)

On Bid day we just wear Pin attire.

Thetas on our campus usually dress super cute for rush. One year they had a safari theme and they all wore khaki pants and white button downs unbuttoned so you could see their different animal print tanks underneath.

If our rush chairs ever decide to change around what we wear, this thread has been really helpful with ideas!!

[BrownEyedGirl]

Our rush is pretty Southern, Tibi, but it's not too dressy here. We don't have houses so it all takes place in on-campus rooms.

First Day (Ice Water Tea Party) - We wear our chapter stitched letter jerseys and all wear identical shorts and black slides.

Second Day (Philanthropy Party) - We wear cute white philanthropy tees that say "Zeta Tau Alpha" in black on the front and a pink ribbon on the back and the phrase "Think Pink!" with Susan G. Komen's logo and foundation name underneath. Sounds odd, I'm sure, but really cute.

Third Day (Theme/Skit Party) - We wear either a costume to be in the skit or a "The Late Show with Zeta Tau Alpha" (identical to Dave Letterman shirts people can buy as souvenirs) with top ten reasons to go ZTA on back...it goes along with our skit. We all wear cute khaki shorts, brown belts and gray tennis shoes.

Pref Night - Black Dresses (not quite cocktail but still very dressy) and pearls.

Most chapters dress similarly to us - Panhellenic mandates what chapters can and can't wear (or at least gives strict guidelines). I like the ideas I've seen here; I will share their with our VP-Membership!!

[tcsparky]

It was always interesting at my school to see the girls during formal Rush. Almost all of the Rush activities took place off campus (there were no houses, and the chapter rooms just weren't large enough for Rush events). Each night of Rush a different sorority was responsible for getting the cars to take the Rushees to the events. The neat thing: each sorority was assigned a different color car to get. One night they were all black, another blue, white, etc..... It looked very impressive!!!!
Bid Day at my school began on the Quad, this large green square in the center of campus. Each org was assigned a different spot. They would stand there and wait for the Rushees to come out of the students Union with their bids. On Bid Day you could determine the ranking of the groups by what they wore to Bid Day. The "top" group wore pin attire with their badges. They were a very large group, and looked very elegant in their dresses. They also always had balloons of their mascot, and this HUGE set of letters. The two groups in the middle "tier" wore the Bid Day shirt with all the same color shorts. They looked very cute, comfortable and casual, and united. The lowest "tier" wore the Bid Day shirt and whatever kind of bottoms they wanted. There were some members in denim cutoffs, some in pants, some in khakis, etc.... They looked unorganized and random.
I was able to observe formal rush on the campus for 6 years, and bid day always looked the same. There were only four groups, and everyone knew the order in which each group was "ranked". I just thought it noteworthy that the bid day dress code seemed to reflect the unofficial ranks.

[greek girlie]

The "top" group wore pin attire with their badges. They were a very large group, and looked very elegant in their dresses.

There are a couple of houses on my campus that do this. I don't really like it. At my campus the PNMs are in "lockdown" in the dorms. They change into their Bid Day shirts before they come outside. They run to meet their group and then go back to the house. So the new pledge class is in shorts and tees and the rest of the chapter is dressed up. I always thought I would feel weird in a new place and being the most casual person there-like I was under dressed.

[tcsparky]

"So the new pledge class is in shorts and tees and the rest of the chapter is dressed up. I always thought I would feel weird in a new place and being the most casual person there-like I was under dressed."

I guess this was another difference at my school. The Bid Day parties all took place off campus, usually at alums houses, so after pictures on the quad everyone went back to their rooms, the actives changed into Bid Day shirts and shorts, then everyone went to the all-day party. I can see your point about being dressed casually on your first day. I'm sure it was easier for the pledges after everyone was dressed the same.

One year the Tri-Deltas had the cutest idea. On the front was a pocket-sized picture with Delta Delta Delta, Bid Day, (date). On the back of the actives' shirts, in HUGE letters, was "GO (triangle triangle triangle)". The pledges' shirts were the same except instead of GO they said WENT.

[twinstars]

Originally posted by tcsparky
So the new pledge class is in shorts and tees and the rest of
One year the Tri-Deltas had the cutest idea. On the front was a pocket-sized picture with Delta Delta Delta, Bid Day, (date). On the back of the actives' shirts, in HUGE letters, was "GO (triangle triangle triangle)". The pledges' shirts were the same except instead of GO they said WENT. [/B]

The year I pledged Kappa Alpha Theta, the actives' rush shirts said in big letters on the back, "Think Theta."

Our bid day/pledge shirts were exactly the same, except the back read "Thought Theta." They were really cute, and a few years later everyone's still wearing them.

It was a really good idea, because right away the whole chapter had one shirt "in common," new pledges included.

[justamom]

I asked my daughter and she said nothing really stood out. There were capri's with shells in the sorority colors, dresses in the same styles, sweaters tied around necks. She said she remembers ZTA dressing in a rainbow of colors. Black, conservative "after eight" for pref. The overall look was conservative, classy throughout the parties. Sorry, not much help. h2oot has been through it more than my daughter maybe she cold help.

[greek girlie]

Are capris still going to be in style this spring and summer? I hope not.

They have been in style for 3 or 4 years and I have about a million pairs. I love them because I don't like to wear shorts but they're cooler than pants when it's hot.

[lyrelyre]

I don't think they are gone quite yet. I've seen them in stores and catalogs spring collections, so they're here at least till the fall.

[lilsnakeyk]

Rush this year was full of great themes, which made dress checks a breeze.

Day One- Sigma Kappa is It!!!- Our girls all wore black skirts (usually knee length or shorter), Black sandals, mules, or flip-flops(it is Long Beach, we all have sand permanently stuck between our toes, we just couldn't not wear flip-flops), and we all wore split-neck express metro-tees with SK embroidered on them. Each girl wore one of three different colors, either purple, bright pink or bright teal/blue.

Day Two- Be an All-American with Sigma Kappa- We all wore either khaki skirts, shorts or capris, with either red, white or blue polos. And we wore white Sketchers/Keds. It was very Tommy Hilfiger.

Pref- We all busted out in our long black dresses and black sandals.

Bid Day- Bid-Day T-Shirts (of course) as well as our letters because we take all of our new members to the beach for a bonfire on bid day, and it can get a little bit chilly.

Greek Love,
Lil Snakey K

[ErikaXO]

We had dress checks too. I think it is a good idea because every once in awhile someone comes out of left field with something and it can really ruin the effect. My senior year for example, our first party we had to wear these red t-shirts with plaid Chi O letters with khaki shorts and white socks/sneakers. Second party was our Ivy League party, where we had to wear Polo button-downs in approved colors with long khaki skirts, socks to match our shirts, and either bucs or loafers. Third party was our Chi O Kentucky Derby party, where we had a little more leeway but still had to get dress checked....we wore dresses or suits with dressy shoes and everyone had to wear big hats. The effect was AWESOME!!! Fourth party we wore black dressy dresses which was our traditional preference party.

Seems like it is probably a lot simpler now that they have gone to no-frills rush. I would guess that the rushees are a lot more concerned about their clothes than the rushers, or am I wrong?

[kmp1552]

Coming from a fairly small University and having rush at the beginning of spring semester we don't have to worry about the heat! Many chapters and I know mine did do dress checks for most people but there were a few who if they couldn't make it were excused because they knew that our outfits wouldn't be too bad. We did things like letters and jeans and sneakers for the first day, philanthrapy T shirt and jeans the second, something in relations to our theme the third and then the black dresses for pref. I don't think there is any sorority on my campus who didn't do the black dress thing for pref so I like the idea of red. I do think its important to do dress checks though because of "those girls" and we did have it happen one year and we made her change prior to the start of our third party, which was sad but needed to be done