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!

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

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. :eek: :D

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. ;)

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).

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

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.

you're such a new yorker :D

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...

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!:o :eek:

This is one of the dumbest threads I have seen!:confused:

And I only WISH that this was one of the dumbest posts I have ever seen.

Why can't you understand that EVERY organization is different? Nobody goes around here talking about DUMB Lambda Chi Alpha and its practices are, so what gives you the right to talk to others the way you are?

Different organizations have different traditions! GET OVER IT!

When I became an APO pledge, we were given items that were ENTRUSTED to us. Nothing we were given belonged to us as pledges, specifically the pledge book and pledge pin. I don't think it made us work harder, but it made us APPRECIATE the solemnity of our initiation. Actually LEARNING what something meant and then being given the right to wear it.

Same with Alpha....I appreciate my letters because they were mysterious to me for so long.

And i RESPECT the fact that others do it differently! My school had NO NPC/IFC system, so a lot of what i know about it, I learned from greekchat and then later, when i went to grad school someplace where they had such a system. It's different, and if they are okay with it, i am okay with it!

I never would have though about having colors for my family tree....it's a tradition!

Cultural relativism man....it is a MUST that we adopt it in the Greek communities!

AND WHY CAN'T I IGNORE YOU??????

THAT SUCKS! :mad:

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Pledges wearing letters
 

regardless, that has nothing to do with it. being male or femaile is irrelevant. the colors are just as important as the letters and hold just as much meaning to NPHC organizations.

If an undergraduate young lady was seriously interested in AKA as an undergrad student, even if her favorite color was pink, I doubt very seriously if she would wear pink 2 -3 times per week even before she because an offical "intakee" or what ever they are called. It would probably be seen as disrespectful by members of the organization and, because NPHC sororities are so closely aligned with their colors (unlike NPC) sororities other folks might try to "guess" her interest.

As an official 'old head' who went to college in the 80s when NPHC organizations pledged "above ground" it is also interesting to note that the pledgees did wear the organization that they were pledging colors. If you have seen School Daze, you will see Pyramids (the name that members of Delta Sigma Theta called --still call? I'm not sure-- their pledgees) from the Eta Kappa chapter (at Spelman college, my alma mater! :) ) with red sweaters on over white turtlenecks sitting in the stand during the homecoming football game. Other sororities did not allow the combination--even then. For instance, Ivies (the name that the members of Alpha Kappa Alpha called their pledgees) at my school could wear green (usually paired with white), but never work pink while they were on-line. Also interesting to note that this was the time that pledgees were expected to dress alike most, if not all of the time. BTW, they STILL did not wear letter though until they were offically members. Evidently pledgees were also instructed that they could not even touch the letters. I remember a particularly funny event in the cafeteria where a member was trying to make a pledgee touch her letters and the pledgee was running around like she was trying to make her put her hand on a hot stove! LOL Of course that would definately be considered hazing nowadays, but back then it was the norm. AS a matter of fact, people used to love to be in the caf when the pledgees came in 'cause they knew they would get a show! LOL