Mattijs Van Bergen first came to our attention at the last London Fashion Week in September, where the Matijs spring/summer collection was shown in all it’s bright metallic glory.

With a palette of contrasting brights and neutrals, shiny metallics and matt chiffons, Mattijs’s voluminous shapes were a bold flight of fancy from a designer who hails from the same art college as conceptual fashion designers Viktor and Rolf.

With sumptuous combinations of slate grey with metallic burnt orange, mint green and fuschia pink, and vivid metallic gold with slate grey washed out denim, Mattijs collection was full of pleats and gathers paired with slim pencil skirts and skinny denim, making for a separates collection which was extremely wearable.

Using Lyria textiles, Zijder natural silks and Swarovski crystals, the Mattijs collection is ‘a collage in styles, fabric and colour and all feels like you just opened a wondrous jewel box..’

After studying at the Artez Hoge School in Arnhem, Mattijs went on to further hone his craft at Central St Martins College of Art’s presitigious MA Fashion Womenswear course, where his final collection went into limited production and was a critical success.

Having participated in many Dutch-organised fashion events such as the Arnhem Mode Biennale along with designers Rodarte, Maison Martin Margiela and Jil Sander, and the Dutch Frans Moelnaar Couture Awards, Matijs slowly built up press coverage for the Matijs collection before going on to work in the design studios of Giles Deacon and Viktor and Rolf.

Launching his Mattijs autumn winter collection for A/W 2008, his designs were immediately snapped up by the influential London boutique Browns. The Dutch Fashion Foundation further granted Mattijs a design studio in Amsterdam, from where he now works, whilst showing the Mattijs collection at London Fashion Week.

With a new Mattijs jewellery collection due out soon, we can’t wait to see how Mattijs will use his fashion design abilities applied to jewellery, hopefully making a more affordable way of buying into his design skills, epecially in a recession.

We at ysh London can’t wait to see his next collection at Vauxhall Fashion Scout this coming fashion week, and we will of course be on hand with our video cameras at the ready, to provide you with the fastest coverage of fashion week on our blog http://www.yshlondon.com/blogs/

We look forward to showing you the Mattijs collection final run-through video as soon as we can get it online – so watch this space come February 19th-24th 2010 for coverage of the shows – all from the comfort of your computer screen!