Recruitment Clothing
 

Hello all! I am writing this post for my Recruitment chair....we need some opnions. What do you think is appropriate attaire for a chapter to wear for Round 1 (or night one...)? Should it be casual? Dressy? Uniform? Individualized?

Thanks for all your feedback!

Blaire

The most important question is, what do other chapters on your campus do? You want to do almost the same thing - but stand out a little.

First party is almost always casual, and you don't want to make the rushees feel underdressed. So something like jeans or khakis (or very casual skirts) are great.

I think the best look is one where everyone looks similar but not identical. Again, it depends on your campus. But letter shirts are always a great choice. If you can get them in several colors, it's amazing how "together" you will look, yet not clonish.

At some schools identical accessories are required, at others not, but you do want to look similar - everyone in brown shoes, for example.

My school does formal recruitment similar to many other schools and I've given some examples of what chapters have worn for Round 1 (our open house) in past years. Keep in mind that our Round 1 is a little more dressy-casual than Round 2 (philanthropy day... much more casual), and yours may be different.

Some outfits worn by chapters during round 1:
GPhiB 2002: pink sweetheart-neck tees with g * phi * b embroidered on the left side with white mid-thigh skirts and tennies (i know, i know, "after labor day... blah blah... we looked GREAT!)

AXO 2002: red v-neck tees with AXO embroidered on the left side, tan-colored capris and tan sandals (actually looks a lot better than it sounds).

SigKaps 2002 (and most years): purple tees with Sigma Kappa embroidered on the left side (very popular obviously), black above-the-knee length skirts and black sandals (classy).

GPhiB 2000: pink/violet tees with "gamma phi beta" embroidered across the chest, black capris and black sandals (SO SIMPLE!).

AXO 2000: white tees on some girls and red on the others with "Alpha Chi" embroidered on the left side (of course) in green, with khaki pants and white tennies (now that's what many chapters do on philanthropy day).

Hope this helps a little! Rule of thumb: the more simple the outfit, the more flattering it is on ALL members, and the more easy it is to put together!

For our first round, we wear royal blue t-shirts with white embroidery across the chest that says "G*Phi*B" (the stars are yellow) and three yellow crescent moons embroidered underneath the lettering, stonewashed blue jeans, brown belt and brown boots.

Our first day of parties, all groups had to wear khakis and panhel t-shirts. It made everyone seem equal on the first day that the PNMs came through.

Our first day of recruitment (on an admittedly casual campus, in terms of rush) all the houses wore Panhellenic t-shirts and jeans. Each house had a different color shirt, but they all had the same logo. This was actually very helpful for us pnm's, since a lot of us didn't quite have a handle on all the greek letters and names yet...instead we could refer to the houses as "the green house" or "the red house." :)

The most important thing is that your sisters feel comfortable in whatever they're wearing. I remember when I did rush for the first time as a sister, we had to wear skirts the first round and they were soooooo uncomfortable. It put us all in a bad mood and that had to have had an impact on some rushees' impressions of our chapter.

What you should wear totally depends on your campus.

On my campus, most chapters wore somewhat coordinating outfits but not completely "matchy-matchy" ones (b/c of "no frills" rules).

Like one chapter might wear red, white, or blue v-necks (a third of the house in each color), and khaki capris with white platform canvas sneakers. Or one might wear pastel tops with black capris and black sandals... sounds similar to what other people are saying.

On my campus, I think jeans were a little too casual, but like I said... it depends on the attitude and ambience of yours.

We wear black capri pants with bright colored tops, which works well for us.

Other groups on our campus usually wear something similar.

it differs alot on my campus
round one:

Chi Omega: Chapter jerseys and jeans or shorts (I can't remember it was casual and HOT outside)

Tri Sigma: Badge wear, but nothing too dressy. everyone was mostly in nice day dresses and skirts wearing thier badges.

AST: They were dressed similarly to Sigma. Dressy day clothes and badges

as far as everyone matching goes...
round two (philanthropy):

Chi Omega: in white button up collar shirts (long and short sleeve), badges, and some sort of khaki colored pant or capri (shoes, I don't know)

Tri Sigma: White with purple Sigma letter shirts that they had all made (they were cute) and jeans (we were down on the floor making stuff)

AST: they were all dressy casual (in khaki or black pants I think)

I do know that as a PNM it is always eaiser to remember what sisters are wearing if they are wearing the same thing, but I don't know if remembering that sort of thing sways anyone's mind. i think it does make a good impression to come off as a unified group, but you don't have to do that the first night. I prefered the different dresses my first night because I didn't feel overwhelmed by a sea of uniform colors. We were (the sisters and PNMs dressed similarly, so it made me feel more comfortable. However, every school is different.;)

So we don't have formal, so we at no point, minus ritual, have anything remotely similar on but... There was a chapter in Chicago, AST, that had each sister bring her own black shirt. They then embroidered them so they looked the same. She said everyone was able to have a shirt they were comfortable with but still look unified. I thought it was cute! I dunno, if Sarah ever reads this perhaps she'll expound on their idea. How different though! (My guess is they all had similar pants...) Especially if you have a bunch of different body types in your chapter.

Tau Love

Exactly the point..................

and it worked! :)

The color thing only really works on campuses where you have 8 or so chapters. After that you wind up with shades of colors for your shirts. When I was a PNM with 13 chapters there were the royal blue house and the navy blue house, the kelly green and the forest green, the light pink and the dark pink. No chapter wants to wear brown panhellenic shirts.

Except for Gamma Phis!!! :)