'States of Undress': Fashionable Models and the Fashion of Models for Social Change

With her long, ropy, signature braid and high-waisted pants, Hailey Gates may well be the millennial answer to early-career Oriana Fallaci, or perhaps fashion’s answer to Anthony Bourdain. Seemingly comfortable in any patois, the polymath model/writer/actor (“Twin Peaks”) travels to such far-flung locales as Liberia, Mexico, France, Romania and even Independence, Ohio, to document “fashion shows and under-reported cultural phenomena,” for her Viceland docuseries, “States of Undress,” now in it’s second season. What emerges in toto isn’t so much that Liberia or Independence is the next Paris or Milan, as much as how these unexpected local fashion shows provide a portal through which to explore greater issues of gender, cultural identity, class and race.

Viceland launched as a 24-hour, millennial-focused cable channel in February, 2016, headed by creative director Spike Jonze (“Her”). While the rest of the world seems aware of the fact that cable is on the verge of becoming extinct, Viceland decided  to go for broke and establish itself as the “world’s preeminent youth media company and content creation studio.” Scanning through their menu of offerings—one of their programs is “Balls Deep,” another is “Bong Appétit!”— the selections seem like standard if irreverent Guys-Doing-Stuff fare, at least until you get to “Jungletown,” a docuseries about building a sustainable town in the Panamanian Jungle, or  Ellen Page’s Emmy-nominated “Gaycation,” and Gates’s “States of Undress,” both of which are perhaps an attempt to lure in more thoughtful, female viewers with socially-conscious travel shows hosted by . . . wait for it . . . self-aware young women!

Watching “States of Undress,” you almost forget about the fashion element, and embark on an engaging Lonely Planet guide to life’s stark realities. Though Gates remains utterly fashionable and lovely at all times — no one has ever made puffy sleeves look quite so effortlessly unfussy and chic — there is, above all, a drive to depict topics of historical and political relevance, such as the second amendment in the U.S., commercially sexually exploited teens in Liberia and Cholo culture in Mexico, where Gates and the leader of the Cholos both sport the same Nike Cortez. A shot of the Face of Miu Miu riding on the back of a Cholo’s bike suggests a kind of easy solidarity, the leitmotif of the series — the idea that Gates is as down with the community of Neza City as she is with the punks or the Emos or the high fashion crowd. Throughout, she is with it and wise as she discusses street style, as well as the challenges and benefits of belonging to any one of these particular subgroups. The fact that she fits in everywhere makes sense: Gates is likable and funny. But what is she saying about fashion? Is it the great equalizer or the unattainable dream?

“I ate better in Liberia than I did in Ohio,” Gates tells a group of people at the New York press screening of “Packing Heat in Heels,” the Season 2 premiere episode.  The crowd chortles knowingly. As someone who went to college in Northeast Ohio and has spent a lot of time in Africa, I find this hard to believe, but maybe Gates doesn’t like cheese or the breadsticks at the Olive Garden. “Everyone on the crew was on the anti-gun spectrum of things but we didn’t set out to solve the gun debate,” she adds. “The gun may be an item that frightens you, but the only way to figure out why it does is to talk to people that wear it or carry it.”

Meanwhile, to the people at the screening, Independence, Ohio might as well be a foreign country. The episode boasts a population of Glock-totin’ grannies and double-x chromosome NRA enthusiasts who while away their every free moment at gun ranges or gun club meetings or gun stores that pepper the bleak, snow-covered landscape like the ubiquitous fast-food restaurants. Suddenly, a gun is both a totem object and a fashion accessory that demands a special cute purse. Depending on your stance on the second amendment, this is either a nod to equality — why shouldn’t women have their own gun accessories? — or unnerving. That is, until you watch the Liberia episode and witness the child soldiers with their assault rifles. At the screening, however, an audience member asked why the women of Independence carried guns yet appeared hesitant to call themselves feminists.

“It’s a really interesting word,” Gates admitted, shrugging. “Every time I asked someone if they were a feminist, I felt like they recoiled in fear.” Again, the audience laughed knowingly, as if to say, we are all proud feminists who would never, ever be caught dead in the Olive Garden.