Why Maarten van Rossem is May's style icon

This week I joined (with a considerably increased heart rate) at The Smartest Person. I obviously can't say anything about the outcomes, unless I can lock you up afterwards and only free you again in mid-January, but I can certainly talk about what happened there.

So I met the country's biggest grump, Maarten van Rossem. Even before we shook hands, he called out to me. ’You are a lifestyle expert. I find that fascinating. How does one become that?“

I told Maarten that I don't label myself that way and that I am ‘just’ the editor-in-chief of a platform. “Ah, just like me. I am that too.” Mr. van Rossem seemed quite pleased.

During the recordings, Philip Freriks asked me to review the outfits of my fellow candidates to end with the one-member jury. Maarten van Rossem.

Well, Philip. Maarten is a standard feature in a lecture I give about the importance of having a signature look. People like to think in boxes and appreciate it when your appearance tells who you are at a glance. Something like that.

Nuances and details will come later. By wearing his standard black outfit, Maarten indicates that he doesn't want to be part of it at all; moreover, it matches his slightly darker mind, and with his brightly colored shoes, he relativizes things and especially himself a bit. Maarten gets a picture from the teacher when it comes to a well-thought-out and developed signature.

“Iconic, almost?” Philip Freriks asked me with a hint of doubt in his gaze. “I would say bordering on that.” Was my answer. I found it a bit rude to say that to achieve iconic status, you actually first have to die.

I cautiously looked to the right. Towards Van Rossem. I expected a snide remark or at least a comment that called it ‘all nonsense’.

But there he was, my favorite grumpy professor. And he said nothing to me. He looked at Philip for a few seconds before saying: “You didn't expect that, did you?”

I actually believe he was a bit gleeful.