Yale’s Halona Dantes Is Challenging STEM Major Stereotypes Through Fashion

Welcome to Style Spotlight, the lifestyle column featuring girls from around the U.S. and their unique senses of style! This feature’s spotlight is on Halona Dantes, a physics student at Yale University who describes her own sense of style as “free, experimental, and balanced.” 

Dantes shares that her style is “inspired from the amazing girlbosses I’ve met in my life. I’ve learned and want to show others like me that being fashionable, feminine, and putting effort into the way you express yourself and doing well in academics are not mutually exclusive.”  

Dantes reveals that her style is variant and inclusive, drawing from a wide range of aesthetics such as cottagecore, dark academia, and hyperfeminine. In creating her looks, she finds ways to juxtapose unlikely combinations that complement one another and form overall expressions that feel more personally encompassing. “I’ve been trying to explore grunge, too,” Dantes says. “And I really like the idea of primarily androgynous/masc outfits paired with subtle feminine pieces.” 

For Dantes, colors are an important component of forming outfits. Pink, baby blue, black, and green serve as some of her most frequent choices. “But most of all I like pairing different colors with each other,” she says. “Pink with blue, green with black, and pink with black are all pairs that I like to put together.” 

Her favorite pieces are often mixed throughout her different looks in ways that add new touches. When it comes to accessories, she shares, “I have recently been obsessed with earrings. I think you can convey a lot with them through both shapes and colors. I’m trying to explore fake nose rings as well!” 

Vests have also been a go-to of Dantes for a while due to their versatility and ability to elevate the intentionality of a look. “During my era of discovery, I found sweater vests and vests… I’ve learned that depending on how you integrate them, they can be used in both casual and formal outfits.” 

As a physics student, Dantes admits that the culture surrounding STEM environments can sometimes stigmatize personal style and perpetuate false ideas about what a typical STEM student should dress like. “I think one of the stereotypes about being in STEM is that you’re a boy who wears the same sweatshirt or sweatsuit (like Zuckerburg) and don’t put much effort into the way you express yourself,” Dantes shares.  

However, through her own journey, she seeks to challenge these stereotypes, revealing how taking agency through style can not only be expressive but empowering as well. “Sometimes when I have a busy or out-of-control week, the routine of parsing through my wardrobe and choosing what colors I want to embody and the way I want to color my eyelids and cheeks can be really helpful in allowing me to find myself again,” Dantes says. 

For Dantes, finding her own style was a process that took time and effort. It was an act of self-discovery as much as it was one in aesthetics. She shares that changes throughout her life contributed to shifting outlooks on style and a greater willingness to take risks when it comes to fashion.  

“I think growing up in a relatively conservative country did not help me in my pursuit of finding my sense of fashion… It was probably the need to cover up so I wouldn’t show too much skin and wouldn’t get gawked at. But coming to America and seeing how people express themselves without these constraints has really helped — I’m able to find the joy in dressing up when it felt like a chore before.” 

Today, Dantes reveals how her own personal style has allowed her to be more comfortable in her own expression, and how the opportunities that style offers for creating a sense of identity can be multifaceted. For a girl who holds many roles in her life — physicist, poet, dedicated leader — this statement couldn’t be truer.  

“The act of choosing an outfit myself helps me feel independent and confident,” she says. “This translates to the way I interact with people and interact with the world in general.” 

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