Podcast 82, ARIZONA MUSE, A POST-PRADA EDUCATION
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EPISODE 82 FEATURES ARIZONA MUSE
In 2011, Arizona Muse landed a Prada contract and a 14-page story in American Vogue, with Anna Wintour comparing her to Linda Evangelista and Natalia Vodianova. She's since become a familiar face on Vogue covers everywhere but these days Arizona has different priorities.
Today she is using her platform to help the industry that she loves transition to a more sustainable future. She’s been working with The Sustainable Angle (and I you haven’t listened to the Episode with their founder Nina Marenzi, you must) curating showcases of young sustainable designers with her friend Rebecca Corbin-Murray, and she plans to set up a consultancy.
It all starts, says Arizona, with education. She’s been cramming on the subject for the past four years. Her flat is full of books on regenerative agriculture and she’s obsessed with TED talks on materials science. She’s like a sponge sucking it all up.
This Episode is about following your dreams, diving into new worlds, reinvention, and learning. It’s the story of a woman we knew for one reason - her beauty - changing the conversation around her, to focus outward. This week, we also welcome our youngest ever podcast guest in Arizona’s baby daughter, Cy!
WHAT WE TALK ABOUT…
The FUTURE FABRICS EXPO showcases textile and materials innovations (including packaging) that seek to lower fashion’s environmental impact. These are selected according to 4 criteria: water use, respecting biodiversity, energy use, and waste.
DESIGNER’S REMIX is a Danish brand, founded in 2002 by Charlotte Eskildsen, that focuses on recycled materials. Arizona spoke to Charlotte for an event during Copenhagen fashion week in February.
COLORIFIX is the company behind the first commercial biological dyeing process. Visit their website.
IS SOY REALLY BAD FOR YOU? Soybeans are a type of legume native to Asia. They have been part of traditional Asian diets for thousands of years. In fact, there’s evidence that soybeans were grown in China as early as 9,000 BC. Today, soy is widely consumed, not only as a source of plant-based protein but also as an ingredient in many processed foods. However, soy remains a controversial food — some praise its health benefits, while others claim it could be bad for you. Via Healthline.com Read the pros and cons here.
MODELLING ‘Arizona signed to Next Models in 2008, when she was still in high school. She fell pregnant with Nikko less than a year later. In 2010, she returned to modelling and gave herself six months, convinced her career wasn’t going anywhere. A breakout show season came within a few months, starting in New York, where she walked for Narciso Rodriguez, Marc Jacobs, Hervé Leger and Proenza Schouler. When she opened and closed Prada’s spring show in Milan later that month, the newcomer with the extraordinary otherworldly beauty, that film noir-y face, those eyebrows and wide-set almond-shaped eyes, was fast-tracked into the big time. By the end of 2011, photographers Patrick Demarchelier, Peter Lindbergh and Steven Meisel had shot her for Vogue and Prada, and Anna Wintour anointed her “the new face of American fashion”. ‘ Read the Porter article in full here.
“Fashion sustainability overlaps and interlinks with so many other industries and sectors like agriculture, politics, economics.” - Arizona Muse
WANT TO WATCH THE WHALE POO TED TALK? (You’re welcome.)
STEINER SCHOOLS The first school opened in Germany in 1919, the first in the UK in 1925. There are currently over 1,200 Steiner schools worldwide and 2,000 Early Years settings in a total of 60 different countries, 35 in the UK & Ireland. Steiner education is state funded in most European countries as well as in Australia and New Zealand. In the UK there are currently four state-funded Steiner Academies. The rest are privately funded but aspire to make their education available to as wide a community as possible.
Rudolf Steiner (1861 – 1925) was an innovative academic born in Austria whose ideas founded the basis of Anthroposophy. He applied his ideas to education as well as agriculture, medicine, architecture and social reform. Read more here.
LA COQUETTA is a Spanish children's designer clothing boutique in London. Check them out here.
GREEN WASHING is the practice of making an unsubstantiated or misleading claim about the environmental benefits of a product, service, technology or company practice. We know brands engage in it - but might we do too, even accidentally?
“THE TIME FOR AWARENESS BUILDING IS OVER. WE KNOW WHAT THE PROBLEMS ARE. I THINK IT IS THE TIME FOR ACTION NOW.” - ARIZONA MUSE
A NOTE ON OUR MUSIC: IT IS BY OUR FRIEND MONTAIGNE, WHO SANG A SPECIAL ACOUSTIC VERSION OF "BECAUSE I LOVE YOU" JUST FOR US. IT'S FROM HER ALBUM GLORIOUS HEIGHTS.
THANK YOU FOR JOINING THE WARDROBE CRISIS CONVERSATION. WE'LL HAVE A NEW EPISODE FOR YOU EVERY WEDNESDAY. CAN YOU HELP US SPREAD THE WORD? WE'D LOVE YOU TO TELL YOUR FRIENDS & LEAVE A REVIEW IN iTUNES.
Until next time,
Clare x