A model named Jera made headlines at Rick Owens’ SS16 show when he took to the runway with a banner that said "PLEASE KILL ANGELA MERKEL...NOT". The unplanned stunt was said to be totally out of Owens’ hands, with the designer reportedly furious and taking little time to distance himself from the quasi-political sign, stressing in an interview backstage, "I don’t know because it was not my idea. He pulled it out and I punched him when he came off stage."
Owens isn't the only one who's angry. Eva Goedel runs Tomorrow Is Another Day, the agency that represented Jera until yesterday. She sacked him immediately after the stunt, telling Dazed "I don’t want to see him again".
The picture Goedel paints of Jera is an interesting one; he has no mobile phone, he would often not turn up for shows, but Owens remained devoted to him. Jera only worked for Rick Owens, not for any other designers, ever. It’s easy to see why an unplanned stunt such as this one would hurt Owens so much.
Indeed, Goedel told us: "Rick has supported him so much, every season, for every lookbook." Owens appears to be completely serious that Jera was his "male muse for the past twelve years".
Goedel discussed the banner itself, something she described as "uninteresting, not even funny" and speculated that Jera was now on his way back to Germany. According to the agency, Jera is slightly nonplussed by the reaction and doesn't regard what he did as that big a deal. Goedel disagrees, labelling him "an idiot" and telling us, "if you have two boys on your books like Jera, you kill yourself. You could never even guarantee that he'd turn up – Rick was so generous in working with him."
