Fashion

WHAT SHOULD YOU WEAR TO A BOOK PRESENTATION

How it almost completely went wrong with May's look

Today is Jet's day. Her book (with the obvious and equally sounding title ‘The Book of Jet’) is released today. I already made proud little hops when I saw the WeTransfer with the PDF of her book, and I watched a video where Jet lets the book slide through her slender fingers for the first time, but today is the day.

It feels a bit like getting married, I told her this morning on the phone. We all look forward to it, everyone who is important and special in your life comes together and, haha, here comes the moral of this piece, puts on their best outfit.

Now I always want to look like I've put some thought into it, so that the people around me think that someone (in most cases, myself) has thought about it a bit, but when Jet, our Jet, my Jet, launches her very first book, you want the ultimate level of fun. Certainly, and here's another scoop I'm very proud of, if you (me, that is) are the one to receive the first copy.

Jet asked me this somewhere at the end of last year, so you would say I had time to think about it, and I did. I also did a lot of shopping. For every type of weather, I had a suitable book presentation slash book reception dress. And the week before the presentation, I was free, so plenty of time to shop.

“I still had my razor lying on the beach and stubble under a dress, meh”

But then suddenly the weather was nice. And then I suddenly spent a week in a little house on the beach. With lots of wine and gin and tonics and chips and fried fish. Without a mirror. I couldn't even check if I had gained weight (have you ever seen a scale on the beach?), so suddenly I was awake with the suffocating thought that I might not fit into all those dresses. I even considered taking a photo of my hips and based on the swelling or lack thereof at the top of my underwear, I could see how my figure was doing, but that was too far for me.

At home, I immediately checked if zippers and buttons could still close. Luckily, they did. Problem one was checked off. Then there was the razor issue. I still had my razor lying on the beach and stubble under a dress, meh. Stockings are also not an option because today is almost tropical. A thousand thanks for the Philips Lumea which makes me almost hairless on my lower legs. Problem two tackled.

And actually, I had a lot of good options in my closet. That beautiful black-and-white dress by Claes Iversen, a pink embellished 3D-like dress that I wore once last year at Holland's Next Top Model and thus the aforementioned Dolce & Gabbana dress. All in a clothing bag, six pairs of shoes included, and then I thought I would choose together with Jet. Bag in the trunk of that enormous Talisman and off to the office. Everything would be fine.

“All in a clothing bag, six pairs of shoes included, and then I thought I would choose together with Jet”

Once at the office, everything came at me (because I had spent a week on the beach), it turned out I had appointments I didn't know about, business proposals needed to be sent, and the Talisman was exchanged for a Renault Mégane. I didn't have to worry about that, it was taken care of for me. And I breathed out again. Until halfway through my meeting, I choked on my caffè latte (which is definitely not a good idea) when I realized that my clothes for tonight were in the back of the Talisman. And oh my god, that Talisman is a press car and it was now of course lent out to a travel journalist who would be touring Italy with it. With My Clothes. And Shoes. And Make-Up. And oh guys, this was too much. I called colleague Theo and got his voicemail. I left a WhatsApp message, but the wifi was acting up, so I couldn't send it. And I was really starting to get quite anxious. I called the colleague who was with Theo. He didn't answer either.

And when Theo walked in, I almost stormed him. Where were my clothes? Or where was the Talisman? We needed to trace it. He had to follow up.

“Oh May, your clothes are already ready in the hallway. I took them out immediately when I checked the car.” Theo. My hero.

Something tells me that everything will be fine tonight.