By Rick Owens At the 2016 spring and summer men's wear series conference, there was a scene that made him extremely angry: 31-year-old German male model Jera Diarc walked to the stage holding a white cloth with the words "Please Kill Angela Merkel – Not" written on it, expressing his protest against Angela Merkel, the first female prime minister in German history. Obviously, people will attribute this to Rick Owens expressing political views, or another way to attract public attention-in the 2015 autumn and winter menswear series, he launched a series of works that exposed the genitals of male models, causing heated discussions on the Internet.

But this was not Rick Owens' original intention. Afterwards, the brand issued an official statement, saying that Jera Diarc's move was purely a personal behavior and had nothing to do with the brand; Rick Owens himself also said in an interview that although he supports freedom of speech, he cannot tolerate any remarks or actions that endanger the lives of others. He told WWD: "This male model (Jera Diarc) is a fucking lunatic and a scoundrel. When he walked backstage, I punched him hard! Please write this sentence out, I punched him hard!".

However, some people say that Rick Owens did not crush Jera Diarc, and the person who said this was Eva Gödel, the boss of Jera Diarc and the founder of the model agency "Tomorrow Is Another Day" (TIAD). "I didn't see Mr. Owen do anything physical to him. He also paid for Jera's flight back to Germany because he wanted to distance himself from her," Eva Gödel said. Before this incident, Rick Owens had always cited Jera Diarc as one of his inspirations.Our cooperative relationship has been more than 12 years.

Those who want to distance themselves from Jera Diarc include Eva Gödel: "I don't want to see him again. I don't know why he did that, maybe he drank too much! His slogan is stupid." Eva Gödel later deleted Jera Diarc’s information on the website of the Tomorrow Is Another Day model agency: “He is always late, and I have always known that he is crazy. No one wants to use him. Rick is the only designer who insists on hiring him, even if he is never on time.”

Eva Gödel, who is also from Germany, is the head coach of Jera Diarc. Like those male models who have appeared for brands and fashion magazines such as Balenciaga, Vetements, Saint Laurent, Raf Simons, Valentino, J.W.Anderson, 032c, Man About Town, Another Man, etc., they all belong to the Tomorrow Is Another Day model agency founded by Eva Gödel - its prototype was founded in 2001, formerly known as Nine Daughters and a Stereo, and the origin of the name, precisely because this was the topic of Eva Gödel's graduation thesis from university, who majored in graphic design. In 2010, with the increase in business, the Tomorrow Is Another Day model agency located in Dusseldorf, Germany, was officially launched. In addition, Eva Gödel also co-founded an advertising design company called Chewing the Sun with two university classmates. In addition to designing her own Tomorrow Is Another Day website and brand image, she also provided advertising design services for brands such as Prada, Miu Miu, and Mihara Yasuhiro.

Eva Gödel’s modeling agency provided the vast majority of models for Demna Gvasalia’s first menswear collection for Balenciaga. According to Demna Gvasalia's requirements, the male models need to show a multicultural background, but at the same time be able to form a "gang"-like sense of unity without any violation: "I spent a month looking for these models," she told Dazed.

At the age of 15, while still studying, Eva Gödel started working in a clothing store called Made In in Cologne. In the interview, she said that Made In was the most avant-garde clothing store in Cologne at the time and was the first merchant in Germany to introduce Stussy. Thanks to her excellent academic performance, Eva Gödel was allowed to work here: "Four days a week, I go to work in the shop after school." Gradually, she gained the trust of her boss and began to travel frequently: "I would go to various places to meet with brands and designers that the boss wanted to buy. I met Patricia Field in New York when I was 16 years old, and later met people from Acupuncture in London."

Prior to this, Eva Gödel, who was about 14 years old, participated in Larry Clark's photography exhibition in Cologne. She was infected by the youth subculture perspective in Larry Clark's works. She also liked movies like "Unruly Sky" and the early advertising images of Helmut Lang and Calvin Klein. Eva Gödel is used to discovering potential male models on the street, which stems from her work in In Virgin audition work while working in a Made shop: "I was in charge of a project at the time, which was to use a Polaroid camera to take pictures of people who we thought were stylish and hang them in the window. I ended up taking a lot of pictures. A photographer saw the photos in the window and asked me if I could help him find some young boys to be models. I enjoyed the process of doing this project, so I agreed to him. I found many boys for him to take pictures of, and then charged 50% of his income - haha!"

In the 1980s and 1990s, with the rise of Versace, Giorgio Armani and other brands, the men's clothing world emphasized fitness, sexiness and success, which also led to the aesthetics of male models tending to be strong and majestic like Greek sculptures. When Raf Simons, Prada (and the Miu Miu men's clothing line that was still alive at the time), Comme des Garcons, Rick Owens, etc. gradually took over the baton and began to promote youth, street, neutral and experimental styles, the requirements for male models also underwent earth-shaking changes. Nowadays, even brands like Ermenegildo Zegna, which are known for their classic men's clothing styles, hope to attract a wider group of people through younger models. The emergence of Eva Gödel just met their needs.

14 years ago, Eva Gödel took male models to Paris to visit Raf Simons, who soon returned to Cologne for a return visit: "I think he likes those boys very much." Then, some artist friends gave her the phone number of Maida, a famous audition director. The former was looking for male models for a Jil Sander advertisement run by photographer David Sims and stylist Joe McKenna. As a result, Maida booked Eva Gödel as a male model: "Then, Alister Mackie (creative director and stylist of Another Man magazine) and Nicola Formichetti found me; and then Hedi Slimane went to Dior. Homme, started looking for me too... I have more and more clients, and I think I can make some money from it!" In this way, Eva Gödel, who used to have a fun mentality, taking male models on the bus and visiting friends' houses, officially started her modeling agency business. Now Tomorrow Is Another The number of male models under Day has also increased from more than 20 in those days to more than 90 - from wet boys, somewhat sick young people who are very different from the traditional "handsome guys", to middle-aged men with beards and even white hair on the temples... These "unconventional" male models are the concrete expression of the fashion industry dominated by the current street and subculture trends.

"Not only in Germany, I also go to the streets of London to look for potential boys. I will observe their actions and then approach them - sometimes I will stand in the middle of the road waiting for them to come over. Of course they will think I am weird, and after hearing my intentions, they will reject it because they do not believe that they can be a model." Eva Gödel says the boys still joke about their first encounter, and her traditional street scouting approach raises a question: How do you turn these potential strangers into professional models?

"I won't preach to them too much, but I will tell them what is an educated and polite behavior. No matter how popular you are now, it will disappear like a meteor, so if you want to continue doing it, your personality, character and attitude are very important," Eva Gödel said in an interview with Dazed. In addition, it is not easy for a passerby to learn to walk on the catwalk: "Catwalking is not easy for ordinary people. You may look very stylish walking on the road, but on the catwalk or in the design studio,It can be hard especially when there are a bunch of people staring at you. I try my best to teach the new boys how to walk, but unfortunately, some of them have good appearance, but their steps on the stage are... some things look simple, but in fact they are difficult to achieve."

Compared with male models, Tomorrow Is Another Day has much fewer female models signed, with only 18: “I’m really not very good at discovering female models, this is my weakness. Compared with girls, there are many more boys who have the basic conditions to be male models. Their figures can wear most designer clothes, but they may not be able to maintain this figure for that long. But for girls, considering their height and body shape, the range is narrowed down very narrowly."

Every model faces disappointment, and Eva Gödel chooses to comfort her boys in an optimistic way: "Some of the boys we were very optimistic about did not get jobs. At this time, I would take them out to dinner and parties, and share my previous experiences with them. Some male models were not selected for the catwalk, but they got the following advertisements. After all, as a model, you will have many opportunities to go abroad, meet models from other agencies, and even make friends. For example, if you are British, you might be able to stay with a German model friend you met before when you go to Germany! ".