Everything You Need for Winter Recruitment

Winter sorority recruitment is just around the corner and today I'm bringing you everything you need to succeed this rush season. A little disclaimer though, wear what you're confident in! Dressing nice during recruitment is so you can put your best foot forward, not to impress sororities with what you wear or how much you spend. If any chapter judges you solely off what you wear and how you look then it's not a chapter worth joining. Wear what makes you feel the most beautiful and the most confident!

Keep in mind, when dressing for any round of recruitment the goal is to look put together, polished, and presentable. Don't wear anything too low cut, anything too short, or anything too tattered and ripped. Wear natural fresh makeup because you don't need to cover your beautiful face with all that stuff! Stand tall, be polite, and be yourself and you're sure to be successful.

I'm sharing outfits that range from casual to very formal. Typically, the first few rounds are very casual and often, you're given a t-shirt to wear with bottoms of your choosing. For those reasons, I'm only sharing bottoms for open house rounds. You can wear a skirt or a cute pair of pants or jeans with your t-shirt. Don't feel like you have to look extremely dressed up for this. At JMU, most girls wore a denim skirt or a fun pair of shorts. For shoes, again keep things casual. You can wear a cute sneaker or ankle boot for something easy. If you want to dress up a look, try styling a riding boot with your outfit. After all it's winter and it'll be chilly.

The rounds in between open house and preference night are semi-formal. While you don't wear a t-shirt to rounds, you also don't wear a black tie outfit. For these rounds, showing off your personal style is all you need to worry about. Just make sure to not wear anything too low cut or short. I would go with a skirt and blouse/sweater combo styled with a pair of boots. You don't have to wear heels this round either, a pair of boots or flats is great.

For this round, I shared a lot of short skirts and wrap skirts. The material they're made out of make them a little dressier than a denim skirt, but because they're shorter they still have a casual way to them. Wearing a dress for these rounds is also a great choice. It's winter so I tried to share long sleeve dresses (number 24 is my favorite!). I would save your nicest dress though, for preference night!

You've made it! Preference night. This is the night where you decide between the last few sororities left on your list. At this point, they have shown a preference in you. You've sold them on you, now they are trying to seal the deal. Save your most formal wear for this round. I prefer wearing dresses on pref night, but I also shared a few jumpsuits and pants below.

I received a question on Instagram asking if black was an okay color to wear. Absolutely! Black isn't just for funerals, it's a formal color that looks amazing on everyone. Even during fall recruitment, I saw a lot of black dresses come through the doors on pref night. If you want to skip the dress, try a jumpsuit. You can find great ones from Lulu's and Red Dress Boutique for not too much money. If you wanted to try a pair of pants, anything not athletic wear or denim is appropriate. Dress up pants with a crisp blouse or sleek turtleneck and a pair of black flats or nude or black heels. I shared a handful of options but there are so many black, navy, blush pink and red dresses out there, it would be impossible to link them all!

P.S. -- number four sold out between me writing this on Friday and it posting today on Monday, but I found a similar version!

As far as shoes go, it's pretty simple. For your more casual open house rounds, you can get by with a clean (note: clean!) pair of sneakers. A slip on Van or Tretorn is perfectly acceptable. If you wanted to slightly dress things up, a riding boot or an ankle boot with a low heel is also a great option with a denim skirt or a pair of jeans.

When picking out shoes for philanthropy or sisterhood rounds, a heeled ankle boot, formal flat or over the knee boot are great accessories to style with a semi-formal outfit. Also, those over the knee boots will make your legs look 100 miles long.

Lastly, when dressing for preference night keep things simple with black or nude shoes. A heel, ankle boot or flat in either black or nude will match anything you wear and is effortlessly classic. You can't go wrong with black or nude.