Stiched Letters

Psi U MC Vito · #1 01-09-2010, 04:04 PM

This just occurred to me the other day and had me thinking. Does anybody have any idea when we Greeks started to wear stitched letters in various forms? Was it recently when the standards of dress started to lower and people stopped wearing badge appropriate attire to class or was it something else?

33girl · #2 01-09-2010, 04:33 PM

I went to college in the mid 80s and we had stitched letters then but for a while after I joined still had to go to a bigger school (IUP) to get them. All we had at our bookstore was screen print.

One of our founders said that up until the late 60s girls weren't allowed to wear pants let alone jeans to class and that they checked to make sure you were wearing hose. The first pics I've seen of sisters wearing letter shirts were from 73 or 74 - they were these shirts that had ASA with the S being the Superman logo. They were extremely ugly.

JohnnyCash · #3 01-09-2010, 06:21 PM

Zebra print letters are my favorite.

BabyPiNK_FL · #4 01-09-2010, 07:43 PM

You have zebra print letters? I'm beginning to question your chapter... lol

MysticCat · #5 01-09-2010, 09:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Psi U MC Vito

This just occurred to me the other day and had me thinking. Does anybody have any idea when we Greeks started to wear stitched letters in various forms? Was it recently when the standards of dress started to lower and people stopped wearing badge appropriate attire to class or was it something else?

Define recently.

Like 33girl said, we wore them in the early 80s, and I remember them from the 70s. Stiched letter jerseys, usually though not necessarily in your GLO's colors, were the standard greek-letter attire.

Psi U MC Vito · #6 01-09-2010, 09:50 PM

I actually meant about the 70s, which while a long time is recently considering there are fraternities getting close to 200 years old.

JohnnyCash · #7 01-09-2010, 10:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BabyPiNK_FL

You have zebra print letters? I'm beginning to question your chapter... lol

Hahaha no. I would question my membership if someone had zebra print letters.

honeychile · #8 01-09-2010, 10:56 PM

I've seen pictures of Greeks from the 1920's to the present with stitched letters. I don't think they had a way of wearing letters (as opposed to pins) prior to the Sixties, did they? I can't imagine a sorority girl wearing pin attire for, say, Derby Days!

MysticCat · #9 01-10-2010, 03:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by honeychile

I've seen pictures of Greeks from the 1920's to the present with stitched letters. I don't think they had a way of wearing letters (as opposed to pins) prior to the Sixties, did they? I can't imagine a sorority girl wearing pin attire for, say, Derby Days!

If I had to guess, stitched-letter jerseys are kin athletic jerseys and to lettermen's coats/sweaters/jerseys. I'd also guess that they first arose for things like intramural competitions, Greek week, etc. I can remember some jerseys from years ago that had the stitched letters on the front and the person's name (or nickname) in heat-adhesive letters on the back top, like a sports jersey.

honeychile · #10 01-19-2010, 11:55 AM

Sick of spammers bump.

UofM-TKE · #11 01-19-2010, 06:23 PM

But since it was bumped, Here are two pictures from 1968. One is a stitched Sigma Chi shirt from Derby Day and the other is a Lambda Chi stitched jacket. Both were very popular at the time. Usually some business would come around to the houses selling shirts, mugs and things.

honeychile · #12 01-19-2010, 11:27 PM

I'm in the process of emptying out my mom's house, and for the life of me, can't find the ONE photo album that had my greataunts' pictures in sororities! I do know that the one has a letterman-like sweater with letters on it, either for a sorority or as a fraternity sweetheart (which she was). This would have been in the 1920-30s! (Sometimes it pays to be the much younger child of two youngest children of large families!)

peppermint23 · #13 01-19-2010, 11:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JohnnyCash

Hahaha no. I would question my membership if someone had zebra print letters.

I don't see anything wrong with that as long as it's not the official house letters. Our chapter has girls wearing funky/cute designs on their letters. And yes, one girl has zebra print letters. They're unique.

33girl · #14 01-19-2010, 11:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by peppermint23

I don't see anything wrong with that as long as it's not the official house letters. Our chapter has girls wearing funky/cute designs on their letters. And yes, one girl has zebra print letters. They're unique.

The thing that's wrong with this is Johnny Cash is a guy. LOL. The only man on earth who can wear zebra print anything is Prince.