We couldn't have asked for a better way to spend the wonderful holiday dedicated to St. Valentine than chilling with Greg Dona '10. You may have seen him fashionably hanging out at his frat, Bones Gate, or playing his fly mixes at any of the other parties on Webster Ave. His fashion is simple: fitted hat, T-shirt, denim and fresh kicks. Dona rocks an urban style that makes him stand out on this crunchy campus and he does it well.
Dona describes his style as nerdy and we agree he's a huge nerd and that's why we love him. We took him downtown to Hanover's "International DVD & Poster" a hole-in-the-wall store with fabulous poster art and an amazing vinyl record collection where the manager, Brian Smith, was kind enough to let us shoot Greg in his natural habitat. Greg's face lit up immediately as he perused the vintage collection stumbling on everything from the jazzy Herbie Hancock to the sultry Donna Summer. Music is definitely Dona's main inspiration and we got a chance to listen to him work the turn-tables over Winter Carnival Weekend when he opened for Vega at Psi U.
Dona stumbled upon DJ-ing his sophomore Winter during an off-term in Sydney, Australia.
His living situation was less than fabulous but as he said, "it was not as cold [as Hanover], and it was mad cheap, yo."
During that term he lived in a hostel and ran a music blog called "Panda Toes," which did very well because of the Australian's obsession with blogs. Dona was able to go to many different night clubs and eventually met a man who offered to pay him a hefty sum to clean his club for an hour once a week he offered to teach Greg how to DJ and that's how he developed a newfound passion.
The trade-off: Dona could hone his skills in the nightclub early in the night when none of the trendy club-hoppers would be caught out, while the club owner could put "American DJ" on the flyer and draw a bigger crowd.
"Everyone would see American DJ' on the sign and think, oh man he must be ill,'" Dona explained laughing. "But by the time they got to the club they were too drunk to care if I was bad."
When asked if his time in Sydney influenced his fashion sense he immediately said no, laughing at the thought.
"Sydney's swag is hilarious," he said smiling. "Everyone was wearing tight cut-off jeans and neon. It was like a hipster take on the 90s raver kid."
One commonality between Dona and the DJ kids of Sydney: a love for fitted hats. This is something Greg takes very seriously.
He refrained from sharing how many hats he has on campus, at the risk of potentially embarrassing himself, but suffice it to say his collection is extensive.
"For a Dartmouth kid, yo, I've got more than enough," he said.
This nerdy, urban, DJ kid successfully stumbles upon his fly wardrobe by shopping regularly at the Salvation Army and relying on his mother's disapproval of his "ratty clothes" at Christmas. His look is completed by his big, horn-rimmed Goldfinch frames that he says make him look like, "Waldo, Harry Potter and a Harvard Professor" all in one. Greg Dona was the perfect Valentine check out his mixes on campus and you'll fall in love with him too.
As for the rest of you, we'll be on the lookout. You never know, you could be next. If you see fashionable people on campus that you think deserve to be applauded, blitz DMStyle. We'd love your help keeping Dartmouth fashionable.
