Sequins and beads

[alum]

The no-sparkles might be the same for the actives' side of it as well.

My D brought home 10 pages of instructions regarding her GLO's required outfits for their Panhel's recruitment. They have the parties in the evening once classes are done for the day but still are to avoid "beading, sparkles, sequins or anything that screams look at me."

[beachlover]

I just bought that first sun dress on the alabama page in blue

[UGAalum94]

Alum's comment reminded me of something I've been wanting to ask. Can I highjack here?

How much direction does your group give in regard to what actives should wear?

I know we've had threads about why groups wore, but I friend of mine who wasn't greek whose daughter is at UGA now showed me a list of what her daughter was supposed to wear as a member to do recruitment. It seemed about like the directions we were given years ago, but struck the mom as dictatorial.

[SWTXBelle]

Back in the day all the actives wore the same outfits - every round.

[alum]

I went to a school with a much more relaxed formal rush and it's been decades but I don't even vaguely recall being told what to wear.

Personally, I think The Outfit Document is a little bit O-C . However, if it works for the chapter, then so be it.

[UGAalum94]

We only wore identical dresses to prefs, but even then we were given direction on color and brand of pantyhose.

In other rounds, I remember general directions, maybe colors to wear, and we did have dress check.

I think the overall impression is probably better if the group has every member putting thought into what to wear, but my friend found it imposing.

Let me be clear: this list of my friend's wasn't even a full page when printed from email. It wasn't anything like 10 pages.

[dgdramadawg]

Originally Posted by Alphagamuga

I think the overall impression is probably better if the group has every member putting thought into what to wear, but my friend found it imposing.

Let me be clear: this list of my friend's wasn't even a full page when printed from email. It wasn't anything like 10 pages.

My guess is that since your friend wasn't Greek at UGA, she's just not able to see it like you or I can. At Georgia, the sororities are very competitive with each other and it's important that every sister look her best. You never want to be the sorority with the sister who is memorable to PNMs because she:
- wore a dress two sizes too large or too small
- toppled over in too-high heels
- you get the idea
I am of the opinion that the reason chapters can be very "dictatorial" about fashion is that they don't want to leave any room for a sister who is not the most fashion-conscious to not put her best foot forward. I don't see it as a problem, really, but I was there and saw FR at UGA firsthand.

[NUBlue&Blue]

This will be my daughter's second time on the other side of rush and we have to get almost all different stuff than last year...which is so irritating. Frankly, it would be a heckuva lot easier if panhellenic would let them wear identical stuff, then somebody could just order it for everybody instead of some 21 year old girl (who refuses to get input from anybody else) coming up with random outfits that half the time cannot be found in stores (and I live in Atlanta--it's not like we don't have good shopping here!) The main problem with my daughter's list is that everything has to be solid and in colors that aren't currently the most popular. Last year my daughter needed a solid pastel strapless or spaghetti strap sundress and we could not find one anywhere--thought I was going to have to dust off the sewing machine until she finally found one....IN FRANCE. Now if she was looking for white last year, she would've been fine, but plain pastel was nowhere to be seen.

Grrrrr from the mother side. I'd rather give the sorority $300-$400 and have them buy it than spend countless hours shopping or on the internet looking for the holy grail of sundresses in a specific style and color.

[AOIIalum]

Originally Posted by SWTXBelle

Back in the day all the actives wore the same outfits - every round.

Yep, either the exact same outfit or the same styles in specific, harmonious and sometimes assigned color variations (think polo shirts, sundresses, etc.) Outfits were specific to the last detail--shoe type, hair style, accessories (including color, type size and number of rings/earrings when it came to jewelry). Dress checks were held at least twice prior to formal recruitment to ensure both compliance and consistency and fines were assessed if you weren't prepared by the final check. Preference dresses were made (and altered if needed) by a single dressmaker...thankfully total was only 40-45 way back when in the mid 80s!

[KSUViolet06]

Here's a thread about what different sororities wore:

http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/sh...ar+recruitment

[UGAalum94]

I remember reading that thread, but I didn't think at the time what each of those description probably mean in terms of directions about what to buy.

It's just kind of strange perspective to have: talking to the mom about what her kid needs to buy. And of course the kid probably just presented it to her that way: look at this list, mom, you need to buy me all this stuff. (The kid is a great kid; I don't mean anything critical. I just think that is probably the way it went down. I probably would have done the same thing at her age.)

[KSUViolet06]

Originally Posted by Alphagamuga

Alum's comment reminded me of something I've been wanting to ask. Can I highjack here?

How much direction does your group give in regard to what actives should wear?

We were a "medium frills" recruitment. Our Panhellenic didn't allow us to have EXACT matching outfits. We also couldn't bulk order anything (other than philathropy day shirts). What this meant was our recruitment director could require us to buy (for example) a blue sundress, but she couldn't say "go get the blue sundress from Ann Taylor."That was considered matching by Panhellenic if we all had the same dress from the same store.

So since we had those rules, we all had to go out and buy our own clothes. The recruitment team had to be very specific about the color/style of items that we had to have. I'd say that they gave a great deal of direction. For each piece of recruitment clothing (every top, bottom, shoes, dresses for pref) there was a written list of specifications.

For example, our 2nd day outfits in 2005 required a khaki skirt. From what I remember, the skirt had to be above the knee, brown or olive colored dark khaki, not polyester or any other cheap material, and no pleats or ruffles.

You were instructed to leave the tags on all of your clothes for recruitment because if they didn't pass dress check (which was about a month before recruitment), you would have to return them and get something else.

[33girl]

Originally Posted by Alphagamuga

I know we've had threads about why groups wore, but I friend of mine who wasn't greek whose daughter is at UGA now showed me a list of what her daughter was supposed to wear as a member to do recruitment. It seemed about like the directions we were given years ago, but struck the mom as dictatorial.

I used to think the same thing about lists like that and chapters dressing all alike. Then after reading a couple of threads on here and thinking about the mechanics of 1) getting 180 women to agree on what to wear 2) trusting the fashion sense of 180 women, some of whom you don't know terribly well, instructing everyone to get "editor pant #136 in dove gray from Express" sounds like a really good idea.

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by 33girl

I used to think the same thing about lists like that and chapters dressing all alike. Then after reading a couple of threads on here and thinking about the mechanics of 1) getting 180 women to agree on what to wear 2) trusting the fashion sense of 180 women, some of whom you don't know terribly well, instructing everyone to get "editor pant #136 in dove gray from Express" sounds like a really good idea.

Actually, the list isn't even that specific. It would just say "gray pants." But it does specify things like type of shoe, jewelry, etc.

[dgdramadawg]

Originally Posted by Alphagamuga

Actually, the list isn't even that specific. It would just say "gray pants." But it does specify things like type of shoe, jewerly, etc.

And my guess with type of jewelry that it's something like "pearls" where the girls can purchase good-looking fakes from Claire's for $15 and some girls may get white and some may get pink, etc., not "Everyone must wear Tiffany's."