’Twas the night before recruitment, when all through the dorms, every PNM was working with a goal to conform. Their pleated skirts were hung in their closets with care, in hopes that a full schedule of invites would soon be theirs.
At the University of Alabama, which has one of the country’s largest Greek-life programs, the Panhellenic Association (the school’s peer-run governing body for sororities) said that 2,590 young women registered for fall 2025 recruitment, which took place August. In the following weeks, hundreds of thousands of other women at scores of other campuses across the country prepped and primped with the goal of walking into a sorority house and finding their new sisters.
And all of them likely stressed over what the hell they should wear to do it.
Timelines are filled with OOTD posts (that’s “outfit of the day,” for those looking for a 101) featuring girl after girl narrating what she’s wearing and where she got it, introducing even the most square northerner to shops such as the Pants Store (it sells a lot more than pants), Gold Hinge, and ENewton, with the name David Yurman invoked so often that it may as well be a hosanna. A person could drown in this sea of LoveShackFancy ruffle skirts.
Searching for acceptance on campus is trend-proof, but what’s “in” while trying to get in isn’t. To help you play armchair fashion critic while you thumb through those painstakingly chosen OOTDs, Vanity Fair consulted Leighton Newberry, a top recruitment consultant and the founder of Recruitment Ready, and Kylan Darnell, the founding mother of RushTok and a senior at Bama, to find out what the girls are wearing this year to go out and get in.
1. Boho Has Fallen, but Preppy Never Dies
Newberry, who started her recruitment coaching and consulting business in 2019 and took it from side hustle to full-time gig a few years later, has an alliterative mantra: When her clients (“The mom is the one making the purchase, but the daughter is the one that we coach,” she says, noting that there are around 300 of them this year) are getting dressed, she wants them to feel “cute, classy, and confident.” A key to achieving that, too, is modesty.
“You do not want to be focused on pulling up your strapless dress the whole round,” Newberry says. “We want them to focus on their conversation skills because they are being scored.” It’s not uncommon to feel nervous that someone is judging you, and at sorority recruitment, absolutely everyone is.
While boho looks reigned supreme in the past few years, Newberry says that “it’s moved more into preppy and sophisticated” this year. Expect to see scores of Hill House Home Nap Dresses on the feed, bows as hair accessories, Jack Rogers shoes, anything and everything LoveShackFancy (so popular on the Greek scene as of late that some houses have even used it as a theme for a recruitment round), and “little smocked tops.” For putting your most recruitable foot forward, Newberry adds, “wedges are very in right now.”
Darnell, who’s studying sports broadcasting at the University of Alabama and whose freshman chronicling of her rush outfits launched her to internet fame (she currently has 1.3 million TikTok followers and the attendant brand posts for everything from a prebiotic drink to hairspray and a blanket), says that “you’ll always see Easter egg colors, like pastels, and the floral patterns.” This year’s twist? Three-dimensional appliqué on those florals.
“You’ll see a lot of satin halter dresses with the back out,” she says, calling out dresses from the brand Elliatt. “I’ve seen, like, a lot of girls doing hauls—that’s what they’re wearing.”
In agreement with Newberry, she also notes that there will be “a lot of wedges.”
And rest assured: Recent trends like butter yellow everything have reached Greek Row, and pearl stud earrings are always, always a go-to for both potential new members (PNMs, in Rush-ian) and active members.
2. Accessories Can Rescue You From a Bad Conversation
An unspoken law of rush fashion demands that PNMs and actives alike dress in an effort to look like parts of a cohesive set, but with subtle variations to keep things from getting too Stepford-esque. Active members plan their themes and outfits ahead of time, and members are designated to approve the sisters’ looks for each day well in advance, with guidance for things as minute as manicures—Darnell mentions having recently gone to the nail salon with friends, where the whole group went for nude polish, a look she describes as not being “distracting.”
PNMs, too, are given a dress code for each round, and on many campuses are provided at the start of recruitment with identical T-shirts they’re required to wear for the first round of the process. At Bama, one of this year’s shirts was white with a hot pink crest on a chest pocket, featuring an elephant wearing a pink T-shirt on the back (meta!).
“We help girls jazz up that T-shirt,” Newberry says. “Not a baggy, oversized look, but more like a sophisticated, classy style,” helped along by a ruffled skirt or formal shorts. “We encourage them to get their correct size and do, like, a little cross tuck with a cute pair of shorts.”
Accessorizing, then, is key. “We tell the girls to pick an item that is something they can tell a story about,” Newberry says. Some of her clients will wear stud earrings shaped like horseshoes to have an excuse to talk about their Texas hometowns, while another will pair a silk neck scarf gifted by her grandmother with her recruitment T-shirt.
“We always encourage girls to try to stand out in their own way, so that conversation will flow a little bit more naturally,” Newberry says. Accessories can also be used to—perhaps not-so-subtly—change the topic of conversation. Because Greek life loves alliteration, conversational no-nos are “the B’s”: boys, booze, and beliefs, the latter referring to both politics and religion, among them. Newberry advises a sort of “hey, what’s that over there?” tactic of bringing up an accessory in case chatter is veering toward a danger zone.
3. Start While You’re in High School
Newberry and other recruitment experts paper their companies’ sites and social feeds with mood boards and ideas for not only different stages of recruitment, but also tailgates, study nights, and even dorm move-in day. In an Instagram carousel providing tips for move-in day (pack your car the night before!), Newberry includes a slide of “move-in day outfit inspo,” featuring a pastel rainbow of athleisure tennis skirts and dresses, chunky Hoka sneakers, and stylish, flowy track shorts for schlepping those extra-long sheets up the stairs.
“You never know when you’re going to meet your future employer or future husband,” Newberry says, “so why don’t you go ahead and put on an outfit you feel cute, classy, and confident in for move-in day? Because one, you might bump into an active in a sorority. Two, you might bump into your future employer. Maybe, like, a dad on the floor that’s moving his daughter in; they might try to hire you one day. So you want to put your best foot forward in all facets of life that’ll help you for rush, but then also for years to come after that.”
Newberry even coaches some girls as young as high school freshmen on etiquette and personal style, helping them steer clear of bikini pics and sloppy party photos on social media before they can even be posted.
“One of the main things that we start with with girls is the importance of representing yourself well online and picking out outfits for your senior-year events, for that senior photo shoot, for prom, that are classy and that you feel confident in,” she says. “Older girls are looking at younger girls’ social media before they even get to rush itself.”
4. Don’t Let Them See You Sweat. Seriously.
Be prepared for situations to get a little sweaty.
“I mean, it’s August in the South,” Newberry levels. She keeps up on continuing education and recently took a lesson on sweatproofing makeup to better advise her nervous clients, recommending they stash a bag with translucent setting powder, a towel to wipe off body sweat, oil blotting sheets, and clear roll-on deodorant for reapplication.
It’s important to be strategic in outfit planning as well, she says, like “picking fabrics that don’t show sweat as much.”
5. Logos Can Be No-Gos
Opinions on donning recognizable designer logos are mixed. Newberry says she advises girls to take a less-is-more approach.
“If you’re wearing something designer, let’s just do one piece and keep it on the down-low,” she says, “because being humble and people not knowing exactly who you’re wearing, but you carrying yourself in a classy way, is way more attractive than being flashy with Louis Vuitton shoes, belt, and earrings.” If you must indulge your logo-mania, she says, “just pick one [piece] and go with that.”
Darnell, however, meets the topic with a shrug.
“You should just dress in what makes you feel the best, because it’s such a nerve-racking experience,” she says. “These girls are nervous because they’re meeting these girls for the first time, and there is a lot of pressure built up behind it. If you wear something that’s comfortable, that you’re going to love, and that you’re going to feel good in, then your energy will be brought out. Myself, I will get dressed up if I’m going to go take an exam, because if I look good, I feel good, right? I am not, like, the fashion police or anything. Logos don’t bother me. I think it’s just that you should wear whatever makes you smile walking in there, whatever shows your personality.”
6. Don’t Forget About Dillard’s!
A thriving subgenre of RushTok sees commentators narrating and annotating those OOTD posts with (often eye-popping) cost breakdowns of the looks. Darnell insists that when she went through recruitment, she “did not buy one dress for rush” and wore dresses from her pageant days. She says that in the ensuing years, she’s noticed “a drastic change in the way girls dress,” with more designer items.
“I didn’t walk into some store and buy a fresh new wardrobe,” she says of her freshman year. “I’ve noticed that girls are doing that now, and they’re buying all new things. And if I was rushing, I would probably do that now.”
Newberry, who has collaborated with storefronts like ENewton and has LTK affiliate shopping boards aplenty, says, “We actually encourage girls to, like, start in their own closet, which I think moms really applaud us for, because their mom wants them to look at what they have right before going to spend XYZ on something.”
That said, if the closet isn’t quite cutting the mustard, she does have a surprising recommendation for where to shop.
“I will say, Dillard’s is killing it,” Newberry says. “They’ve done a lot of collaborations lately, and we’ve had a lot of girls get things from Dillard’s this year. They used to say, like, ‘Oh, my mom shops there,’ but Dillard’s has made an incredible move in the right direction.”
Darnell mentions that girls may borrow or inherit jewelry from family members; they might also share clothes with other students, similar to a practice amongst contestants on The Bachelor, a show that can see multiple women wearing the same gown on different episodes. Newberry, whose Bid Day Bundle offering currently carries an early bird price tag of $997 for Class of 2026 clients, down from its usual $1,297, stresses the range of price points she recommends to clients.
“You don’t have to spend $5,000 to get a bid,” she says. “You can be in a super-cute $50 skirt and feel confident about your outfit. And we kind of try to suggest that.”
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