With the aim of creating great experiences and becoming a home for engaging conversations and events, The Other House has partnered with a number of ambassadors, each with their own unique spin on different aspects of The Other House. One of whom is Arizona Muse – our consultant and ambassador for sustainability within the fashion industry. Sustainability is pivotal to all aspects of The Other House, from using materials with a low environmental impact to carrying out lifecycle assessments to inform interior design choices and in our day-to-day operations.
Below, Arizona shares how she became an ambassador for sustainability, the work she has done for the fashion industry and her top tips for our Residents on making sustainable choices when visiting London and how you can live a more sustainable life.
How do you define what you do for work?
I call myself an activist because I love the term, it makes me feel powerful and a tad wild. I think more accurately what I do is “advocate” for change. I also model still but I love my activism far more.
How has your career evolved?
I used to be only a model, and with just that simple identity I didn’t feel fully explained.
What do love most about London?
I love the greenery and the rain, I know that is strange as most everyone else complains about it but I grew up in deserts, so I still feel like rain is a sacred blessing.
Why does Sustainability mean so much to you ?
We live in the era of a climate crisis so sustainability isn’t really about me, its about us all, we must do everything we can to educate ourselves, change the way we live and impact policy so that we can regenerate the ecosystem that we have nearly destroyed, that eco system being planet earth.
Tell us about your favourite sustainable shopping in London?
Oh its sooo much more enjoyable! I can tell you my life is richer since I started to make different decisions about what to buy, how much to buy, how to live and even how to think. Sustainability thinking is smart and logical and it permeates the whole of our lives. Improving the quality of our relationships, the quality of our thoughts and our purpose in life. Pretty powerful stuff, so in the face of the climate crisis, even though I know a lot about the doom and gloom we are facing, generally, I feel spectacularly positive because of the way I am growing myself through the sustainable changes I make in my life.
Tell us where to go to eat Biodynamically farmed food in London ?
Pharmacy, Spring, and a variety of restaurants now have Biodyanmci Wine, and if you want to go slightly further afield I highly recommend Heckfield place which is less than an hour from west London.
What is Biodynamic Farming?
Please have a look at this Instagram post where I describe Biodynamics in a more three dimensional way.
And what’s a good book/pod/documentary we can read to learn about sustainability?
Oh there are so many. One of my favourites is Braiding sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer, and also the Hidden life of Trees by Pete Wohlleben, I just finished Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake, those are books, and for Pods Fashion Revolution and Farmarama and For the Wild. Documentaries: Kiss the Ground and The biggest Little Farm, Also Damnation and Seed: the untold story. I have made a highlight on my instagram called Library where I share about alll the great things I am reading and listening to.
What do you particularly love about TOH?
That they know sustainability is the BEST pursuit and that it will make their whole vibe better and more beautiful, more thoughtful and higher quality.
You have travelled the world with your modelling career, what do you look for in a hotel?
I look for sustainability. The sheer number of hotels I’ve been to has made me critically aware of just how wasteful hotel life can be and therefore how much impact is gained when it’s “sustainablized”.
What is your favourite cultural destination in South Kensington?
The Serpentine is worth a walk and so is the Design Museum! And of course, as I can proudly share that my great-great-great-great-grandfather Alfred Waterhouse designed it, The Natural History Museum – walk in for a download on nature and how the physiology of our planet works.