This is your mother's Rush! What we wore 1960-1990

[barbino]

I haven't posted in awhile but have read the boards occasionally. Everybody going through recruitment this year seems fixated on what to wear, and what to bring for their recruitment. I have also noticed the phrase "This is not your mother's rush" and thought that it might be fun to tell the PNM's just what it was like "back in the day" so that they could see just what our rushes were like. So I'll go first--

Mid 1970's at the University of Kentucky:

Every morning I washed, dried, and fully rolled my just-below shoulder length hair. Full makeup including base and eyeshadow. Hosiery every day-- no 1970's recruitment was complete without nylons.

Perfume- Your great-grandmother's scent, "Blue Grass" by Elizabeth Arden (this was Kentucky, the Bluegrass state, after all!)

Shoes: For everything but Pref Night, caramel colored wedges with buckles and rope trim on the heel
Matching purse: caramel colored leather, hobo-style

Open House (13 Houses) -- We had 2 days where we had to visit all the houses, wearing casual skirts. I can remember 1 of the 2 days and I wore a dressy blue jean skirt trimmed in lace along with a pale blue t-shirt with a square neckline, also trimmed in cotton lace. I think I wore an ivory cotton wrap-around skirt the 2nd day.

First Round (10 houses) -- I wore an aqua-blue polyester knee length skirt that had side pockets with a white polyester gauze shirt that had art-deco style ladies all over it. I hand washed the shirt, let it dry then wore the same outfit for the second day because I was going to different houses. Polyester-yes! This was the 1970's.

Second Round (I think we could go back to 6 houses) -- I had to go shopping because I did not like anything that I brought for this. Also, we had a Saturday off and my most of my rush group hit the mall. I bought a pale rust colored dress with longish puffy sleeves and smocking on the bust. Again, it was knee length. I wore it with a rust, navy and white abstract-print scarf.

Prefs! (3 houses) -- I wore my prom dress (don't try this now). Imagine a medium yellow long dress with a square neckline trimmed in cotton eyelet, low back, empire waist with a white ribbon. The material was a polyester flocked organdy with white and green flowers and it had a huge floral border on the bottom. I wore white Pappagallo heels with it and they had round toes and round heels.

Things change ...