13 questions with... Arizona Muse

I'm Arizona Muse,

and this is 13 Questions with Conde Nast Traveller.

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My favorite place to spend time is in nature.

And right now, my family,

we're about to move to Ibiza, to make home closer to nature.

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My favorite hotel is called Bishop's Lodge in Santa Fe.

I loved it as a child because it was this green oasis.

Santa Fe's quite dry,

and Bishop's Lodge is in Tesuque,

which is next to Santa Fe

and it's lower and it's got a river going through it,

so it's greener, and moister,

and you feel like you're in this little beautiful paradise.

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I have a couple holidays I'm dreaming about most.

One is in the winter to go dog sledding

in either Finland, or Sweden,

or Norway in those beautiful, big,

rich Scandinavian forests and that crisp, cold winter air.

And if we're lucky, even see the Aurora.

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I like to imagine travel that is doing good.

So how would that look?

We'd be on an airplane, there would be zero plastic,

none, we'd be all reusable bowls,

I think it would be great

to be served bowls of food on an airplane, I'd love that,

with a big pot of soup.

Imagine, like how fun would that be

if you knew that everything you were doing on an airplane

was absolutely zero waste and being done

in the way that caused the least harm to the planet

and to the people working in the travel industry.

Not so long ago we didn't have single-use plastic,

and everyone managed,

and people were fed on boats and airplanes.

So we could just step back a tiny bit in time

and just redo that.

You know, I'm not a ridiculous idealist

for suggesting that this is possible.

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There are a few things that are always in my suitcase.

One of them is Liz Earle's Superskin Overnight Mask.

This is a mask that is so good for my face.

I wake up and I look different after I put it on.

So yes, that's always in my suitcase.

Then I always have my tie-dye socks in my suitcase,

love those.

Wooden toothbrush made of bamboo.

Comfortable shoes, I'm really not into wearing high heels

very much anymore.

And really like think about the whole days of the trip,

that has helped my suitcase so much

because now I have so much more space,

I don't bring useless things that don't make sense

that I don't end up wearing.

And I try to really think about the outfit with the shoes,

'cause I've gotten into trouble with that before as well,

where you're like, okay,

only one of the pairs of shoes that I brought

make sense with everything else that I brought.

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I love SKIIM Paris so much, for many different reasons.

I'm wearing two gorgeous pieces from the brand right now,

which was founded by my darling friend, Caro,

who is the chicest French woman you can imagine.

And then I worked with her on this collection,

Spring/Summer 21, to change everything to be sustainable.

And she did all the changes in one season

and now it's fully sustainable,

every single garment is sustainable.

The buckle here is bioplastic.

This is linen.

The buttons are in recycled plastic.

Lots more other pieces that are in linen.

Then we also have hemp, and hemp is same story as linen,

much more sustainable than cotton,

and of course, all the leathers.

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I am an activist, and so of course,

I am conscious in my consuming.

And I'm so excited by the innovations that are happening

in the world in all sectors, particularly in fashion.

I do think we're still moving a little bit too slowly.

I think this step-by-step incremental approach

to change would've been amazing

had we done it 45 years ago, but we didn't.

So we need to do what SKIIM did and change in one season.

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You have control over everything you buy,

every single thing.

So every time you make a purchase,

make it from a business who's doing things better.

Don't just go to the normal retailer,

the normal grocery store,

buy the normal thing wrapped in plastic.

Do that with clothing, do that with the soap in your hand,

use bars of soap rather

than a pump plastic bottle in your house.

When you begin to realize

that one choice doesn't make a difference,

but if you make it a policy that every time you make

that choice of your lifetime, then you're like,

oh wow, okay,

yeah, I can have a big difference,

either negatively or positively,

and which one do you wanna be right now?

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So books, Robin Wall Kimmerer is an amazing author.

She wrote Braiding Sweetgrass and Gathering Moss.

She's a biologist and part Native American,

draws a lot of wisdom from indigenous native thinking

and culture, and it's so beautiful,

it's like poetry, her books, they're amazing.

Silent Spring by Rachel Carson was the book

that was written that kicked off the environmental movement

in the US.

Huge, hugely important book.

Peter Wohlleben's Hidden Life of Trees.

Documentaries, Damnation,

Kiss the Ground, Sacred Cow.

Podcasts, Farmerama is great.

Investing in Regenerative Agriculture,

that's very specific, so if you're not interested in that,

it might be a little too specific for you.

Brown Don't Frown, very,

very good about race.

Hmm, Nice White Parents,

very good about race as well.

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My heroes are environmental, of course.

Polly Higgins who started Stop Ecocide Now.

Stop Ecocide Now suggests that actually polluting

a river should be a crime,

so you don't just get a financial penalty

when you pollute the river, you are actually a criminal.

And so then if you do it over and over again,

you might go to prison.

That might stop people from polluting rivers.

Leah Thomas, follow her on Instagram,

she's Green Girl Leah.

She's the one one who coined the term,

'intersectional environmentalist',

which means the intersection of social justice

and environmentalism, rather than environmentalism

that's like, buy land,

protect it, keep the people off it,

which was a very kind of white privilege way of thinking

about environmentalism.

Intersectional environmentalism goes, no, hold on,

people of color can be environmentalists too,

and we can do it our way, which often includes

a lot of human regeneration in land regeneration,

indigenous communities living on land

rather than being pushed off it.

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What I love about travel is it can open your eyes,

and give you time in nature,

give you time to think about things.

We often don't give ourselves time

when we're at home in our work life, doing stuff,

so busy, especially not with our kids.

Travel can give you time with your children,

really meaningful, quality time where you put

your phone away, and you just focus on them,

and you play.

We as adults don't play with our kids often enough.

Sometimes we even just pay

other people to play with our kids.

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Don't think your children aren't ready to learn this stuff,

they are.

My son is now 12, but he was 6 when I started this journey,

and I was still telling him everything every day,

and he absorbed it amazingly well.

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So many things make me smile, so many things.

I feel happier than ever before, I feel more empowered,

my life is enriched, it's better,

I laugh more, I smile more,

I have so much fun with the people in this movement

because we're doing something, we're taking action,

and nothing feels better than that.

So I smile at our future.

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