Our Panhellenic Council Forbids Matching Outfits?!-Anybody Else?

[adpiucf]

We weren't allowed all matching. We were told: During round 2, we'll wear khaki slacks with brown sandals and matching brown belts, and a white/bright red/or teal blue polo (You'd be assigned a color). We were told how many pockets our slacks could have, etc.... then during Spirit Week, we would have "Dress Check" where each member would have to model every single wardrobe and accessory for each round for the president, RVP, FRC and Recruitment Advisor (as you know the UCF chapters are huge, so this took a long time in my chapter!). They would tell you if you had to make any last minute changes (down to taking some of the charms off your charm bracelet or getting a new outfit.) We would be shown samples of the general look or color they wanted us to get. This way, all the blue polo shirts were approx the same blue.

I have probably said too much. LOL. We did call our adviser the Rush Nazi.

I kinda liked this-- we were dressed the same, yet different.

It was culture shock when I went on to advise a chapter that bought identical clothing! But it was fun to shop over the summer with my sisters

ETA: It might be more complicated this way, but you also have the option of getting a Ralph Lauren polo, if that's your style, or one at Target, if that's your style.

[aephi alum]

I don't think my school had a rule against having identical outfits. It just didn't really happen. I think what my chapter did was pretty typical. We had rush t-shirts printed for the whole chapter and wore them at one round of parties. For the other rounds, we'd get guidelines like "black t-shirt and khakis" or "letters and jeans" or "black dress or pantsuit" for pref. We also did dress checks in the spring and again during work week so that we could buy any last-minute items the rush chair decided we needed.

[ShaedyKD]

No frills rush is a National Panhellenic Council thing. Most of the schools in FL, including USF where I go, have no frills rush. There can be no more than 6 sisters matching in any given day. And matching means "White Express tank top, Abercrombie jeans, pink ribbon belt, and black Reef flip flops." However, the whole chapter may wear white tank tops, jeans, different color ribbon belts, and flip flops.
On Philanthropy day the whole chapter is premitted to match, so most chapters have shirts done with embroidery, then everyone wears jean skirts, or khaki capris, or black pants. We are allowed to match for prefs as well, but that's just because all chapters wear white or black dresses. And most people don't have the exact same dress anyways. On bid day we wear bid day shirts and usually jean or khaki shorts, skirts, capris or pants. We usually wear shorts cause it's really hot in FL, especially standing outside in the Greek courtyard for Pi Chi and Exec revealing!

[Blue Violets]

Our panhel goes even farther!

Chapters are not allowed to require members to purchase clothing or items specifically for recruitment, i.e. t-shirts.

So, basically, the chapters order t-shirts in say October and everyone wears them once before then ("see? it wasn't for recruitment!") and then everyone wears them during recruitment.

We have deferred recruitment too though and we are very no frills!

[tunatartare]

I don't know if our Greek Council actually forbids this or not as much as no one here would actually do it. I think more people would get freaked out if they walked in to a rush room where everyone was dressed all the same. Sororities will usually just get shirts made that they'll wear for one night of Rush. They'll do that and just tell everyone to wear jeans or something.

[AGDee]

With as many different shapes and sizes that women are, I would think that you want each woman to wear something that is flattering for her shape/body type rather than something from page 348 in a catalog! Saying "khaki pants or capris" is fine, because then women can choose, one pleat, two pleats, no pleats, capris or full length pants, etc... based on what looks best on them! Women need to feel comfortable and confident during recruitment, which means looking their best! Personally, you wouldn't catch me dead in capris no matter how thin or young I was (cuz I'm old now) because I'm only 5'3, with a longer torso and short legs. Capris just look awful on me! A matching t-shirt or prop sounds fine, but just keep in mind that not all women look good in the same style!

Dee

[mommag2]

MY sorority is an associate of Panhellenic at my school, so we only do info night with the other sororities. On that night we have to dress up like we are going to our chapter business meetings. I like it like that . We stand out from the other sororities.

We don't have bid day shirts made. We have a rush shirt made for Fall rush, since that is more formal, which we try to wear all week, if we can't wear the shirt all week then we will wear our active shirts (all are the same), convention shirts (also all the same).

I've never heard of our council barring a soroirity from dressing in identical clothing. I think it looks cute and extremely uniform.

I am in a latina sorority so we have white active jackets and we look so good when we all wear our jackets. Other GLOS can definitely tell when the GAO girls are at an event, the jackets make us stand out from the crowd and we get noticed by non-greeks

[TxGirl]

The idea behind the "no frills" NPC policy is to cut down on spending for recruitment. At many large school chapters were spending over $10,000 on formal recruitment. The idea was to cut down on the excess and focus on conversation and getting to know each other. Going a sorority should be about the women you will be sisters with, not who spent the most money or had the best decorations.

In regards to recruitment outfits - it's the same idea. They don't want you to require your entire chapter to go out and spend several hundred dollars on clothes that they will use only for recruitment. That is what they mean by costumes. Not costumes as in halloween, but an outfit that is specifically purchased for and used only during recruitment.

In an earlier post someone said they were having pref dresses made - this is an example of a no-no for no frills recruitment. It's not the idea of everyone being in the exact same outfit, it's the idea that you are requiring your chapter to purchase a special outfit and that it will be strictly for the purpose of recruitment.

[MooseGirl]

Originally posted by AGDee
With as many different shapes and sizes that women are, I would think that you want each woman to wear something that is flattering for her shape/body type rather than something from page 348 in a catalog! Saying "khaki pants or capris" is fine, because then women can choose, one pleat, two pleats, no pleats, capris or full length pants, etc... based on what looks best on them! Women need to feel comfortable and confident during recruitment, which means looking their best!

Ditto

that's the way our chapter was - wear a letter shirt and khakis, or blue jeans,etc...
And our t-shirts this year we got in 2 colours anyway blue and pink since some women have a preference (I used to despise pink, and it is a colour of the other NPC group)

[Adelphean1851]

My first year on the other side, Panhel decided to cut recruitment down to four days. Day one was panhellinic skit night/orientation. Everyone did their skits for the rushees together and afterwards everyone did a meet and greet, the only sisters who could attend that night were the girls in the skit and the president and I believe they wore our UNLV Greek t-shirts. The Second night was go greek night so everyone wore the Panhellenic issued rush t-shirts and we wore black bottoms (no denim) and black sandals. The next night was philanthorpy and we had diffrent jungle print letters made. Then of course on preff we all had black dresses. So aside from what kind of bottoms to wear alot of the guess work was taken out of it, just an endless procession of t-shirts. So I guess you could call our rush no frills. Heck, we couldn't even have water for the PNMs

[honeychile]

Originally posted by adpiucf


I have probably said too much. LOL. We did call our adviser the Rush Nazi.

One of my favorite Rush Nazi's (funny, we called our Rush Advisor the Rush Nazi, too!) little "problems" was clashing colognes/perfumes. Only half of the chapter was allowed to wear it at all, and there were about 4-5 scents that mingled "properly".

Does everyone else have the Rush Fashion Show prior to Recruitment, for their Rush Nazi?

[polarpi]

Originally posted by honeychile
One of my favorite Rush Nazi's (funny, we called our Rush Advisor the Rush Nazi, too!) little "problems" was clashing colognes/perfumes. Only half of the chapter was allowed to wear it at all, and there were about 4-5 scents that mingled "properly".

Does everyone else have the Rush Fashion Show prior to Recruitment, for their Rush Nazi?

Oh, we have a modified fashion show....basically the FRC comes to corridor and checks out everyone's daily outfits (we didn't totaly match, but we had guidelines of what to wear). If you didn't live on corridor, you brought your clothes to the CR to have them checked during Spirit Week.

I think we were told *not* to wear perfume at all on the off chance that a PNM may have been allergic. Maybe it also went along with not having clashing scents

Our recruitment was probably considered frills, but it seemed pretty whirlwind and laid back to me. First round was Panhellenic recruitment shirts with jeans/khakis (depending on the chapter) and black/brown shoes. Second round (philanthropy round) I think got into the two many women matching or something if we all wore the same t-shirt, so we went to wearing blue shirts with block letters and khakis. Third round (skits) we all wore black pants and white button down tops, unless we were in the skit, and preference round (fourth) we were all in black, but most of us had different dresses and styles so we didn't all look the same.

[Adelphean1851]

I know the term Rush Nazi is all in good fun but, I learned the hard way that some people don't find it funny at all.

Once at work I called myself the Sidework Nazi as a joke because I was checking people out and one of my coworkers got seriously offended. Just a reminder to use these kinds of "jokes" with caution.

[Manda903]

We switched to no-frills at my school last year. They keep telling us it is slowly going everwhere, but I think it is going to be a LONG process. No more than three of our members can wear the same shirt on the same day. It gets really hectic organizing that. Lucky for us, Prefrence is considered more of the chapters ritual, so we can wear anything we want that day!

[AlphaFrog]

Hey JocelynC - "I'm a new member"....brings back memories, doesn't it?