I was peeing with excitement that I couldn’t even wait for good digital images to come through and had to scan the look sheet instead (only to find that the images are up online of sorts...) but Mattijs Van Bergen’s first ready to wear collection for AW08-9 since his graduate collection which was packed full of those pleated deets that I keep on harping on about, is simply amazing.  Thank goodness for this collection, he’s continued going mad with his ‘pleats deets’ and when I saw it in the showroom yesterday, yes, a bit of gratuitous pleat-petting went on.  It isn’t all superfluous pleats in pastel colours though as there are several distinct strands going on in the collection where you have a darker subdued look going on that concentrates on well-shaped separates, coats and sleek dresses.    Then you have candy-cane striped pastel confections with all the different components of fabric contrast, circular pleats, gold hardware and colour blocking coming together in a neat mish-mash (yes, neat mish-mashes do exist!). 

In person, the pieces are even more intricate and beautiful than my shoddily scanned images portray so a stockist for this 1 year-post-grad designer would be marvellous.