Plegdes wearing letters???

[DGMarie]

What does all the embroidery/symbols mean (well, unless secret!)

[Zetagymnast]

My sorority has jackets like that. They are hot. Our colors are turquoise and black. We crossed in the Spring so we got White jackets with turquoise letter with a Black border. I got my big sister name, my number and my lines' name on the back. On my sleeve I got the semester I crossed.

[rho4life]

Yay to jackets! I have one that's all in our colors, and another that's gray w/ all of the embroidery [sp????? it's late ] in blue and gold.


Booooooooo to letters on the butt. People will be trying to read the letters when you're wearing them, and I don't want to bring that much attention to my nether regions in public.

[33girl]

Originally posted by starang21
kappa alpha psi and delta sigma theta have the same colors. so regarding wearing colors, that has nothing to do with it. they still wear their respective colors. i'm talking about an organization wearing their letters in all different types of colors.

Yes, but one is female and one is male. I pointed that out.

I've got a crest sweatshirt that is pink, and no one ever said "oh you are trying to be like DZ or Phi Mu." I simply liked the way it looked on pink.

My point was that no, I don't think colors are as important to the NPC groups, because there are just plain more of them so the same colors get used over & over, and because the meaning usually isn't secret.

[TigerLilly]

Hmm, the idea of not wearing the colors while pledging makes more sense after people explained it more. (Thanks zetagymnast and thetanustew for answering my specific questions.) That seemed so weird to me when I first read about it, since I'd never heard of being forbidden to wear the colors -- it sounded a bit harsh! Now I guess I see how not wearing the colors in combination would go along with the secrecy with y'all's pledgings...makes a lot more sense now!
And AXORissa, I really love that print you showed on the X, with the stars. I have that as the print for the letters on my AXiD bag! I guess it's kind of AXiD colors, with the different colors of blue and then the gold stars!

[thetanustew]

Originally posted by DGMarie
What does all the embroidery/symbols mean (well, unless secret!)

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

[Zetagymnast]

Originally posted by TigerLilly
Hmm, the idea of not wearing the colors while pledging makes more sense after people explained it more. (Thanks zetagymnast and thetanustew for answering my specific questions.) That seemed so weird to me when I first read about it, since I'd never heard of being forbidden to wear the colors -- it sounded a bit harsh! Now I guess I see how not wearing the colors in combination would go along with the secrecy with y'all's pledgings...makes a lot more sense now!
And AXORissa, I really love that print you showed on the X, with the stars. I have that as the print for the letters on my AXiD bag! I guess it's kind of AXiD colors, with the different colors of blue and then the gold stars!

Your welcome Tigerlilly. I did get away with wearing a turquoise design on my nails when I was pledging it was the week before I crossed.

[GeekyPenguin]

Can I just thrown in there as a point of reference that some NPC orgs also have nicknames where the meaning is secret and/or means something? It's not really a nationwide tradition like it is with other groups by my chapter definitely does it.

[emb021]

Originally posted by thetanustew
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.

Sorry if this description is confusing. Perhaps some other folks in organizations with jackets can help clarify!

Cheers,
Shannon

What you describe is usually true for letter shirts/jerseys.

In my fraternity, what is usually done (this can very from chapter to chapter) is:

Fraternity letters on front.

Left sleeve chapter letters

Right sleeve pledge class designation. Usually as you describe: semester & year. My chapter decided to go with pledge class greek letter name instead.

Back of shirt usually has the person's nickname at the top (similiar to your line name) with their chapter number below. Chapter numbers are assigned by National, and indicated your 'order' in the chapter. One chapter I encountered put weird numbers on the back (like negative numbers).

[Buttonz]

In regard to not wearing your colors while in the NM process:
If your favorite color is pink, and you are know to wear pink at least 2-3 times a week, and you were online for a group that had pink as a color and couldn't wear pink, wouldn't not wearing pink give some hint that you were online?

As it has been mentioned, with the NPCs, many groups have colors that are alike or the same. We have Alpha Xi Delta on campus with us, and our colors are similar, so it's not that much of a big deal with the NPC's.

I have one set of letters in our colors. When I got in, my big brought me a long sleeved navy blue tee, with nave blue letters and old gold backing. I wear them all the time, because it's my only long sleeved tee and it's my first set of letters, but I don't like the clolrs. I don't like our colors together, I really don't. My favorite set of letters is the clouds pattern (something greek carries it) on a silver background on a navy shirt, and tye dye. Also, I love wearing my letters with the Yankee pattern

[DGMarie]

Originally posted by thetanustew
Here is a basic run down of what the embroidery and sewn-on stuff means.

Cheers,
Shannon

Shannon:

Thank you so much. I found this very informative and I appreciate the time it took you to type all of that. I can appreciate the significance of these jackets more now that I can understand them better!

Marie

[GammaPhiBabe]

I think it's kind of funny that there are rules about not wearing stitched-on letters. Here, nobody in NPC or IFC groups ever wear their stitched-on letters except in bid day pictures, riding on the homecoming float or playing intermural flag football.

[AXORissa]

Originally posted by Buttonz

I have one set of letters in our colors. When I got in, my big brought me a long sleeved navy blue tee, with nave blue letters and old gold backing. I wear them all the time, because it's my only long sleeved tee and it's my first set of letters, but I don't like the clolrs. I don't like our colors together, I really don't. My favorite set of letters is the clouds pattern (something greek carries it) on a silver background on a navy shirt, and tye dye. Also, I love wearing my letters with the Yankee pattern

you're such a new yorker

your colors are my high school colors, whenever I see them it reminds me of the football team uniforms, haha.

i have a similiar pattern (not really clouds, more like the sky with moons, i i have a lot of shirts with similiar patters, hehe) with silver backing on a navy shirt, in fact im wearing it now...

I miss shopping for stiched on letters...

[Buttonz]

Yes, I am a proud New Yorkers! I want to get a set of letters in the pink passion pattern *it's pink with multi-colored stars* when I can afford it.....and also flames and jade green on silver background, that looks good. I love shopping for diffrent letters with patterns, it's so mcuh fun! The only thing that I don't like is sweatshirts with patterns usally I try and get just solid colors on sweatshirts....I don't know why but I just like soild better on a sweatshirt..My jacket has the blue leopard pattern with silver backing and then all the extra emboridery was done in silver thread...and I got a lot of that lol!

[Tom Earp]

Jeeze stichted letters or not!

What BS.

You do not want the other people on campus to know that these People are Proud enough to Associate with Your Organization???

What bushel Basket of Fruit or Vegies are you hiding you light under!

Letters or Names on shirts do not sully them, it is advertiseing that Hey We have these New Members! They in turn will help promote your Organization! Which in turn will help your Chapter Grow!

Oh, Dont Tell Me, you are all virgins intil the rite of Initation!

Give it a rest! God what a sick way to recognize your New Associates! YOU CANNOT SHOW WHO YOU ARE WITH!

This is one of the dumbest threads I have seen!