Wearing letters in colors other than your GLO's

[cuteASAbug]

As much as I love my sorority to death, I'd rather not look like a Christmas tree every time we have an event or do anything that requires that we wear letters.

[AlphaFrog]

Originally Posted by cuteASAbug

As much as I love my sorority to death, I'd rather not look like a Christmas tree every time we have an event or do anything that requires that we wear letters.

Are you sure no one's going to confuse you for a DG? I mean your signature is pink & blue...

[33girl]

That's why it rocks to have 4 colors, ladies.

While red & white are our primary colors, palm green & gold are our supplementary colors. A lot of times chapters who are on a campus with another NPC sorority with similar colors (i.e. AOII or Chi Omega) use the gold as an accent color.

[Still BLUTANG]

this is actually a sore subject in TBS / KKY. most of the HBCU chapters stick to Blue and White, with a "classic touch of gold"... i am assuming because on HBCU campuses blue +white or blue+gold "belong" to other Orgs. However, at district and national conventions when a whole bunch of WEIRD band people from HBCUs, PWIs, big state schools, etc get together - i have seen letters in everything across the rainbow as well as patterns (spongebob squarepants, no lie).

I have seen a chapter of a D9 sorority with neon/electric versions of their colors on their line jackets. this was back in 98 or 99 and i have NEVER seen it since.

[BabyPiNK_FL]

Tshirts: I have ladybugs in various neon colors, Lightning McQueen letters (COS I LOVE HIM AND the Disney/Pixar film "Cars"), Minnie Mouse letters, Music notes, blue moon and stars, green with red ladybugs, Hello Kitty in pink gingham, etc.

But my jerseys (which are a very "official" thing for most chapters on my campus) are only in: your colors
(although my chapter uses navy blue as the top letter color cos white and pink are hard to see together. However, I do have a pink and white jersey because I'm a purist!), family colors (family jersey), Boyfriend/Big Brother colors (if you are THAT close with someone in a fraternity).

If I saw someone wearing a jersey in my official colors (ex. an ABC in a Pink and White jersey or a white/pink jersey with a pink & white paisley or something) it would be a very tense moment.

But, If it was a white jersey with a pink, white, and grey/brown/green pattern or a blue jersey with pink and white letters than whatever...

But sweatshirts, tshirts, jackets, bags, laptop carriers, dog carriers, dog sweaters, door cozies, lettered doiles, makeup bags, whatver else you can come up with, do whatever! I mean what can you really do about it? Colors are fun!

[Scandia]

I have a green t-shirt with magenta Alpha Phi Omega letters and a magenta t-shirt with blue and gold letters. Both letters in both shirts have patterns. I was never dissuaded or discouraged from wearing them.

[Leslie Anne]

I've heard a lot about getting letters in patterns or colors that match for your littles so your "family" shares a common theme. Is this a relatively new thing?
I have a photo of me and my big and her big...etc. going up to 5 of us but other than that, I had never heard of "families" within a chapter before. It seems like it's being discussed in general more now than ever before. It's been 20 years since I was in college. Any other "oldsters" have any perspective on this?

Anyway, on my campus everyone wore whatever colors they wanted to. I love my sorority's colors, but there's only so much green I can take. The only thing I have left is a heather grey sweatshirt with pink letters on a white background.

[aephi alum]

NPC sorority members at my school would pretty much pick out and wear whatever colors they wanted. It would be considered bad form to wear your letters in another org's solid colors, but if other orgs' colors happened to appear in a pattern, that was fine. I only ever had two lettered items in green and white, and they were a screenprinted sweatshirt and a bar hat... my favorite colors are blues, purples, and black, and most of my letters reflect that.

[PhoenixAzul]

Originally Posted by Leslie Anne

I've heard a lot about getting letters in patterns or colors that match for your littles so your "family" shares a common theme. Is this a relatively new thing?
I have a photo of me and my big and her big...etc. going up to 5 of us but other than that, I had never heard of "families" within a chapter before.
.

Because I'm in a local, and we were refounded in 1988, we all go back to one of five founding member trees. Each of the trees has a sort of "theme" or even a very specific pattern that they use...it's a way to keep everyone straight! Some girls are in 2 or 3 different trees, so it can be confusing. Don't know how this would work in a national organization, unless you went back to chapter founder trees?

[carnation]

One of my Chi O daughters had a family who all had bumblebee letters for their sewn shirts. Really cute!

[Drolefille]

Originally Posted by PhoenixAzul

Because I'm in a local, and we were refounded in 1988, we all go back to one of five founding member trees. Each of the trees has a sort of "theme" or even a very specific pattern that they use...it's a way to keep everyone straight! Some girls are in 2 or 3 different trees, so it can be confusing. Don't know how this would work in a national organization, unless you went back to chapter founder trees?

Which is easy when your chapter's a few decades old or less, but go back much further than that and your screwed Even 20 years would be nearly impossible without having intended to do so in the first place. And that's assuming meticulous record keeping. I'm quite impressed!

[AlexMack]

Originally Posted by Leslie Anne

I've heard a lot about getting letters in patterns or colors that match for your littles so your "family" shares a common theme. Is this a relatively new thing?
I have a photo of me and my big and her big...etc. going up to 5 of us but other than that, I had never heard of "families" within a chapter before. It seems like it's being discussed in general more now than ever before. It's been 20 years since I was in college. Any other "oldsters" have any perspective on this?

Anyway, on my campus everyone wore whatever colors they wanted to. I love my sorority's colors, but there's only so much green I can take. The only thing I have left is a heather grey sweatshirt with pink letters on a white background.

My first letters were 'family' letters, but (I've said/explained this a few times on GC, I guess my chapter is highly unusual)-we have two families in my chapter and we're one of the few SK chapters that does so. We have Big/Little like everyone else, but we also have Mom/Daughter (now Sigma/Kappa). The Mom/Daughter families are the ones most equivalent to everyone else's big/little families. You don't know who your mom is, you find out during I-week, they buy you your first letters and make you a paddle, you give them a pillow.
Anywho-my family colours are maroon with white trim on a grey background. Kinda neat because they're also the school colours.

[Leslie Anne]

Originally Posted by centaur532

My first letters were 'family' letters, but (I've said/explained this a few times on GC, I guess my chapter is highly unusual)-we have two families in my chapter and we're one of the few SK chapters that does so. We have Big/Little like everyone else, but we also have Mom/Daughter (now Sigma/Kappa). The Mom/Daughter families are the ones most equivalent to everyone else's big/little families. You don't know who your mom is, you find out during I-week, they buy you your first letters and make you a paddle, you give them a pillow.
Anywho-my family colours are maroon with white trim on a grey background. Kinda neat because they're also the school colours.

That's really interesting. So you kind of have two bigs? Are you generally closer with your "mom/sigma" than with your big? And then your big could easily be in a different "family" than you, am I getting that right? That's really unique!

[33girl]

Originally Posted by Leslie Anne

I've heard a lot about getting letters in patterns or colors that match for your littles so your "family" shares a common theme. Is this a relatively new thing?
I have a photo of me and my big and her big...etc. going up to 5 of us but other than that, I had never heard of "families" within a chapter before. It seems like it's being discussed in general more now than ever before. It's been 20 years since I was in college. Any other "oldsters" have any perspective on this?

Your family's just your big, your little, and your ancestors/descendants (for lack of a better thing to call them). When sororities have 2 pledge classes a year families grow much more quickly, and if somone stays in school for longer than 4 years she can have a lot of "descendants" (i.e. one of our sisters was in school for like 5 years and so was able to be there at the same time as her 6 little).

Each family had a certain style of lavalier (silver or gold, straight or diagonal or disc) and we got family sweatshirts (the crest on white) but the sweatshirts weren't a big deal. Mainly because probably a bunch of other families had to use the same since selection was rather limited. There are so many colors & patterns to choose from today that I can understand why having a family jersey/shirt/sweatshirt would be fun.

[susan314]

Originally Posted by Leslie Anne

I've heard a lot about getting letters in patterns or colors that match for your littles so your "family" shares a common theme. Is this a relatively new thing?
I have a photo of me and my big and her big...etc. going up to 5 of us but other than that, I had never heard of "families" within a chapter before. It seems like it's being discussed in general more now than ever before. It's been 20 years since I was in college. Any other "oldsters" have any perspective on this?

In Alpha Gamma Delta, we don't have "bigs and littles." We have sister-mothers (our equivalent of a "big") and sister-daughters (our equivalent of a "little").

I pledged in 1992, and our chapter "families" were a pretty big deal. You had your mom, grandma, great-grandma, etc, and we kept track of them pretty diligently. It was fun at Homecoming to meet an alumnae, recognize the name, and say "hey...you're my great-great-great grandma!"