With a collection that caught Glenn Martens' eye, the Amsterdam-based designer is proving that the most compelling new voices aren't waiting for permission.
Not many graduate collections make it onto Glenn Martens' radar. The fact that Laura did says everything you need to know about the level this Amsterdam-based designer is already operating at — and this is only the beginning.
The collection works in a register that is immediately compelling: distressed surfaces, fabric manipulation that reads as structural rather than decorative, silhouettes pulled apart with enough control that the tension feels intentional rather than accidental. Even the makeup direction is in on it — slightly undone, conceptual, raw in the way that only lands when rawness is a deliberate choice. Every element is speaking the same language, and that kind of coherence at graduate level is genuinely rare.
"There is a difference between referencing fashion history and understanding it. Love Comma Lau is clearly doing the latter — and that instinct is what sets her apart."
What makes the collection stand out is how fully it earns its references. The Margiela-coded energy is present — the deconstruction, the material tension, the conceptual makeup — but it never feels borrowed. Instead, it feels absorbed and then rebuilt into something with its own emotional logic. Every texture adds friction or weight to the look. Nothing is decorative for the sake of it. That kind of discipline, the ability to make every material decision mean something, is not something you can fake.
The attention from Martens is well-placed, and if this collection is any indication of where Laura Ter Veer is headed, the industry should be paying close attention. Some designers spend years trying to find a voice this assured. She arrived with one already.