Fresh off a buzzy (and critique-inducing) ensemble at the Met Gala, Cara Delevingne is now chilling in Oahu. On Instagram, she shares that she's swimming with sharks, resting up, and shooting on the beach for her latest collaboration with Puma, and pitching in during a cleanup at Kahana Bay Beach to keep the shores free of microplastics, fishing nets, and more.
"We were lucky to use this beautiful island for our photoshoot," Delevingne says. “It felt natural to give back and leave the beach cleaner than we found."
The model-slash-actress chatted with Women’s Health about exercise, mental health, activism, and plans to make the world a safer place for everyone — starting with herself.
Her workout routine right now is “pretty minimal”
Because her career requires lots of worldwide travel, stunts, creative shoots, and the like, Delevingne considers the job "physically strenuous."
"I just finished my show and I’m pretty exhausted," she says, and I can hear the weariness in her voice through the Zoom audio. She’s tired. "My workout routine right now is pretty minimal."
If she’s preparing for a specific project, though, Delevingne says she enjoys doing Pilates most days.
"My workout routine isn’t something that’s fixed," she says. "I try to listen to my body and do at least 10 minutes of movement a day," she explains.
When she’s not doing Pilates, she does activities like boxing, hiking, and tennis. "It’s hard to motivate yourself to work out when it’s the same activity every day, so I can’t stand going to the gym," she says. If she feels like taking a day off, she’ll still try to fit in a "chilled" activity like swimming, too.
Delevingne got interested in martial arts and self-defence when she was younger, and she even earned a yellow belt. "I wanted to be able to be strong and to defend myself," she says. "It’s also interesting to learn about the history of the practice." In short, she just likes trying workouts that are, well, fun. A pretty healthy outlook, no?
She finds solace in her yoga practice
Yoga is the way Delevingne gets "out of her head and into her body".
"For me, yoga is really about breathwork and meditation," she says. "It’s not an exercise, it’s a practice." It’s hard for her to pinpoint how she feels when she’s constantly on the move, but yoga gives her the chance to "take stock and check what’s going on inside".
She wants to make the planet a better place
When it comes to matters of environment, Delevingne credits much of her knowledge to high school friend Christabel Reed, founder of EcoResolution, an educational platform that provides access to information about the ecological crisis and sustainability measures.
Delevingne says she was "very very ignorant about the state of the world," but Christabel, thankfully, informed her convictions about "the seriousness of what we’re doing to our planet." Now, she says she's passionate about contributing to the climate solution.
"As soon as you educate yourself and start learning, it’s impossible to deny," Delevingne explains. "I’m not better than anyone, I’m just lucky enough to be in situations where people have educated me."
Her latest project combines her passion for sustainability and yoga
This year, Delevingne collaborated with athleticwear designer Puma to launch another collection of her yoga wear line, Exhale, which is made with what the brand calls "eco-conscious materials". She says they wanted to "push the bar higher" in terms of sustainability and design, creating looks that were "easy on the eyes" and textures that were comfortable, no matter what you're doing in the clothes.
The items are created with recycled cotton instead of polyester, which uses fewer resources and generates less textile waste during the production process. And while producing less clothing, in general, is the most efficient way to limit a company’s carbon footprint, in 2019, Puma stated that it would offset 35 per cent of its total greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 to meet the aims of the Paris Agreement, which hopes to reduce the effects of global warming.
"I wanted people to feel good about what they’re doing when they buy it," she says.
Shop Cara's Exhale Collection
puma Exhale Solid Women's Crop Top
puma Exhale Solid Women's Hot Shorts
puma Exhale Solid Women's Bra
puma Exhale Women's Training Tee
At the end of our interview, Delevingne and I touched on the fact that, as a world-famous model and actress, she’s someone who people not only look up to but want to look like, physically speaking. But she says she's not here to tell anyone what to do. "If people want to get Botox or workout two hours a day, just be aware of all else you’re not doing when you do those things," she says. "I don’t want to preach to anyone."
"It makes me sad," Delevingne says, that people "care more about how they look" than their societal contributions. Instead, she encourages readers to think about how you can "truly, truly help someone else."
Perhaps focusing on the environment is one place to start.
