Sweet Severine: Fetish Slime Queen

Sweet Severine photographed by Leo Brooklyn, knotted bra by Kaittitude, skirt by Creepy Yeha, rings by Bond Hardware

Sweet Severine is a magical fixture in the London Fetish scene where she has carved out her own unique, creepy persona. I photographed Severine in a combination of handmade pieces by Creepy Yeha, Kaittitude and jewelry by Bond Hardware in Brooklyn, all styled by Severine herself. Read our interview to learn about her slime wrestling events, aesthetic inspirations, and how she became the iconic gutter muse that she is. You can follow along Sweet Severine’s unique creative adventures on her instagram

Leo Brooklyn: I’m so excited to speak with you and learn about your journey into this world of fetish. My friends and I here in New York are all such huge fans of you! Firstly, am I remembering correctly that you’re from Ireland?

Sweet Séverine: Thank you, means a lot. But no, my grandad was from Dublin. I’ve got some Irish blood but I’m English.

Leo: How did you find your way to London?

Séverine: I’m from the East Midlands, the suburbs. It felt painfully still to me and like you’re watching the town dwindle. I didn’t feel much potential for work, especially being creative. I also just wanted to find more chaos and grit, so I found my way to London. You went to New York so you must have sought out something similar.

Leo: Yes I’m totally from a similar kind of place - small town America. I always wanted to be somewhere more exciting.

I absolutely love your name, Séverine. It’s actually a feminine name in origin that means grave, serious or stern, which is so cool. How did you choose it?

Séverine: I honestly didn’t know the meaning, which is funny because I’m really not a stern person. I always loved erotic illustration, I love old John Willie comics. His illustrations are one of the things that got me into fetish. He has this cult comic “Sweet Gwendoline” which is where I lifted the “sweet” part. Then Séverine comes from the 1967 film Belle Du Jour - it’s this surrealist psychological film starring Catherine Deneuve who played Séverine. She’s this sexually repressed housewife and she’s always fantasizing about being kidnapped off to the woods and whipped. She has fantasies she can’t tell her man about so she seeks out thrills herself. I also just love the sound of the name Séverine.

Leo: You had mentioned you were first drawn to the fetish world as a teenager- how did you pursue that to become such an icon in the London scene? 

Séverine: I was about 14 when I found Dita Von Tease who is instrumental for me being what I am now. She was the gateway drug for me, I became obsessed with her old fetish work, her Crazyhorse performances and her more X rated videos where she’s wearing all of this latex and corsets. It was unlike anything I’d seen before. When I got to London I found parties where you could dress in these outlandish ways - I suppose we are spoiled here with party options and a strong community to collaborate with. I just slowly built my network. I wasn’t really trying to turn it into a job, I just enjoyed it and got to meet lots of designers, photographers and performers. Eventually I ended up doing an apprenticeship with House of Harlot - the famous British latex brand. They were dressing Dita back in the 90’s under the OG owner, as well as a lot of other celebrities I admired, so it was pretty magical for me to be in the same room as all of these incredible fetish fashion pieces, even if the job was incredibly exploitative.

Leo: Were you posting yourself on instagram back then?

Séverine: That was later. As a teenager all of these interests were secret. I was quite nerdy. There was a big part of me that wanted to rebel, but I wasn’t popular and very shy. I was a bit repressed for a long time. Me and my friends were really close but we were all pretty different from each other. There was no outlet for my interests other than fashion and music. I first started putting stuff on the internet when I found FetLife which is like Facebook for fetish people. It's kind of a cesspit to be honest. I’m not an active user. But I put some self shot pictures on there - just for fun. I was styling lingerie and leather together, I remember. There were photographers who ask you to model for them, which can be a bit dodgy but luckily nothing bad ever happened. Then various fashion brands started being interested in dressing me when I started using Instagram. It was very DIY, I never had an agency or anything and I wouldn’t want to. I’m very specific about makeup and styling. I couldn’t just be a puppet for some random company’s brief, unless it really aligned I suppose.

Leo: How long have you been on the internet as Sweet Séverine? 

Séverine: At first I was using my real name which everyone says you shouldn’t do, but I wasn’t taking it very seriously back then. I would do shoots like once every six months or something and then when I realized I could treat this as an actual job, I started to be more professional - to be honest, I had to over lockdown. I’ve been doing this for a decade, but I christened myself a stage name during lockdown - so it’s been 5 years now.

Leo: Oh wow so somewhat recently. I would love for you to tell me about this slime project - Gutter you were promoting recently. Tell me how you planned it. 

Séverine: It was quite organic - my birthday was coming up and my friend was like what do you want to do? And I was like, well my dream party would be to have mud wrestling in one room, slime wrestling in another. She’s a dominatrix and she said, well I don’t know about mud but I’ve got a tank I use to piss on men and a lube that’s a slime texture. We ended up in my mates paddling pool because we ripped it with the first fight. She had a dungeon as well, so location was sorted. I just invited friends and it was a great party. I was paranoid that no one would come to my birthday but everyone turned up! There was an electricity in the room. I think having an activity makes a party way more fun. It’s a distraction from the social anxiety of just talking to people, so I much prefer that.

Leo: So everyone was just slime wrestling each other? 

Séverine: Well we did have rounds. Lots of my friends are also instabaddies and have these big personas and personalities, they came out to their music choice and showboated - it was so entertaining. It’s not serious, like we’re not actually trained wrestlers or fighters but obviously it’s a novelty to see girls in slime. It’s gratuitous enough to have sex appeal, weird enough to be entertaining and physical enough to be a bit dangerous. 

Leo: So was the actual event different to the birthday party?

Séverine: Yes, it was definitely elevated but also a challenge to recreate that organic energy for an expectant crowd. I have to admit it was anxiety inducing, but I’m so pleased with how it went. I’d thought about doing an event for a while and I wasn’t fully inspired by just a fashion thing. There are other wrestling events - more for a submissive man who will pay to go watch women wrestle. Not my thing to be honest. There isn’t music, it’s not a party. I wanted to curate my own thing and I think it’s unique. I set the wrestling to live death metal music. I booked Gorgon Vomit - war metal. They rolled so well with the format, they really amplified it.

Leo: What does this event mean to you?

Séverine: Someone called it “fight club for girls.” I loved that. So I called myself the Tyler Durden of slime. I’ve always said I’m envious of the brotherhoods men can form - like a crew or firm or something where they act as a unit with a purpose. I think women have amazing emotional support networks for each other, which I definitely lean on, but that is also another kind of therapy that I admire as a pretty emotionally constipated person. Especially as you can feel quite powerless as a woman and even if it’s not a replacement, sometimes just a mutual activity is as therapeutic as simply talking.

I’ve always been obsessed with femininity, like corsets and lingerie and latex, but I’ve also grown up on metal music and I guess I have a bit of a fascination with violence. My dad is very traditionally masculine. So there is also this masculine yin yang side of my personality that doesn't really have an outlet within fashion. I’ve just combined a couple of my worlds. Possibly at the danger of alienating myself from both, but hopefully more people will appreciate the duality than not. It doesn’t need to be palatable to most people anyway - most interesting subcultures aren’t. That’s why I have no interest in making a fetish event per say, since even that is becoming so sanitized. Really I’m just a weirdo that can throw a good party.

Leo: I see these cool themes of your persona in your instagram photos where you’re incorporating blood and mud and slime and also you’re fucking hilarious. I love how you incorporate these weird, gritty elements into your persona. It communicates that life can sometimes feel like war and it can be painful but it’s also funny.

Séverine: Exactly, life is pain but you can make something out of that or at least distract your friends. Gutter has really lit a fire under me creatively to explore this more masculine or like, abject stuff. I have a shoot coming up soon where I’m borrowing five giant african snails to crawl on me. It’s not about being glamorous or hot at all really; I want it to feel gross - like a Junji Ito horror character. I’ll be wearing a skin prosthetic to look like some snail/human hybrid. I suppose some people will find it hot because I’ll be dressed in latex - and there’s always one, isn’t there? But I think it will make most people feel a bit sick. 

I really want to get more into exploring violence too, like the “Mugshawty’s” shoot I did where my wrestlers had beaten in prosthetic makeup done by my SFX makeup artist, Roxy Ley. Violence is controversial as a subject but really it’s ingrained into human nature. But I don’t see the grittiness in the fetish scene as much anymore. Or it feels staged. I kind of look to the past or completely separate subcultures for it. I’m trying to maybe carve out that space to have fun with violence, even if it’s more of a performance and curated thing.

Leo: I would love to hear about your work life as a stripper. When did you first start?

Séverine: It’s been 3 years. I keep saying it’s the last year, but it never is.

Leo: Actually I started stripping for the first time in my life 3 years ago as well, at age 37. But anyway, so many of the women I know in New York absolutely love you. You’re such a Goddess to us. And when I first discovered you were a stripper I remember thinking like - oh my God- random men can just meet this absolute queen at the strip club? And I’m sure they have no idea who you are. Anyway they could never appreciate you fully.

Séverine: That’s funny, I probably should sell it more online but then I wouldn’t want the stripper identity overtaking my other work, you know? People love to typecast.

Leo: How much of your Séverine fashion do you bring to the club? 

Séverine: I love the opportunity to dress up and I’ve definitely embraced the stripper aesthetic through osmosis and incorporated that into my style. I’m not sure if I’m the taste of the average finance bro in East London but I guess I find the right guys eventually. I love Poster Girl for example, even though they took what should cost four quid on ebay and made it £120. I still be wearing it. 

Leo: These outfits are practical for the job at hand. When I first started stripping we wore cocktail dresses at my club. We didn’t dance on poles. We just take our dresses off in the back for lap dances.

Séverine: Yes, actually same for me. We’re like “the high end club.”

Leo: I would always look for dresses that were easy to take off. Like zippers are good - you have to dress to undress. It has to come off easily and quickly. A bunch of snaps or buttons can be annoying. But anyway, can you describe what your favorite customer at the club is like? 

Séverine: I think when they just fall in love with you quickly and you think, what the hell…

Leo: That’s the best. Sometimes you have to talk to 20 men before you find it.

Séverine: I also like the ones that you don’t even have to strip for. They just want to chat. Which is actually quite common. I always say the job is being a manipulative little bitch. You have to just get in their head and stay in there, which is a skill to be honed. And I don’t want to sound callous because I’m not manipulative in real life. It’s given me some good life lessons to have to see that side of people - men and dancers included - and almost learn what to avoid becoming. But obviously we're making our money. It’s grassroots wealth redistribution.

Leo: We’re also giving a performance of pleasure - like giving pleasure to somebody. So it’s a performance.

Séverine: Yes and an experience as well. They don’t just voyeuristically watch you. They’re like in and among it with you.

Leo: Can you tell me about any memorable experiences with a customer? 

Séverine: Some of the memorable ones are quite dark. I’ve had people confess the worst things they’ve ever done. It’s quite shocking what they’ll tell us in such a short time because they can’t tell anyone else. We’re like a sexy confession box.

Leo: What have customers confessed to you?

Séverine: Sexual assault. Also one guy told me that he and his friends targeted a disabled guy and beat him up. I can’t even hide the disgust on my face when with them. 

I’ve been trying to take pictures on my point and shoots to make it all mean something at some point. But it’s fun when me and my friends get a group of customers we can actually party with and then we get paid stupid amounts of money just to be silly and have fun and watch my friends perform. 

Leo: I love it when it goes that way! Are there any specific fetishes you can talk about that you like exploring?

Séverine: I do love incorporating shibari, I think it’s so beautiful visually. I’ve never quite got the sexual gratification that some love it for. But I love the challenge of sustaining the pain for the final shot. Kind of like how ballet looks so elegant but is actually brutal. It’s not my fetish, however, and I don’t discuss my private life publicly. But professionally - Gutter is this vessel now - I suppose it comes under WAM - wet and messy, an established fetish for a very niche community. I have like 20 photo shoot ideas and I’ve done 4 of them. I’m working on a few more right now. I can get in a rut with shooting where the motivation dips and peaks and that’s normal, but when you have a mission or a project in mind, you’re a lot more focused which I’ve learned. Sometimes you’re shooting and it becomes like, what’s the point? It’s just another nice picture of my arse. A friend called it “hot girl fatigue.”

Leo: What are you communicating with your shoots around this theme? 

Séverine: Each one is different but they all follow the theme of exploring something disgusting or uncomfortable alongside my usual style of modelling. I think I just wanted to inject more of my personality into things. I like using sex appeal and then exploring a strange niche. I'm inspired by allsorts. I think what I like most is defiling what femininity traditionally means. Whilst still being very feminine, if that makes sense? Like getting in mud puddles or snail slime or weight lifting. I remember this reality TV show Ladette to Lady being on when I was a teenager - the peak of British reality TV in my opinion. That’s where I feel spiritually with Gutter - well the ladette part. But, honestly all of my work is fantasy, I don’t mean to make it sound more serious than it is. When I start my latex brand properly it’s going to be called Fantasies because I’m really inspired by comics and fantasy characters in general. 

Leo: Oh wow - you’re starting a latex brand? 

Séverine: Yes, well I only did one piece so far just to test the waters. I’m working on getting branding and a proper site made now. The next collection is going to be called Bondage Fairies inspired by this cult fetish comic about horny little fairies that go around and get in predicaments where they somehow end up having sex with insects and frogs.

But to answer your previous question: I don’t think I necessarily have something super important or poignant to say all the time. At least not with my work - I have those conversations in private. I just want to create and to contribute to the fetish subculture in some way and leave some kind of mark on it. Sometimes I look at people who are doing really good serious political work or have these deep messages and I think - maybe I should be doing more like that. To be honest, I think I will, I can feel myself becoming bored and looking for meaning in things. But I won’t force saying it. My role is more creative and I don’t think there has to be something wrong with that.

Leo: I think it takes a lot of bravery to move in the direction of your joy and your silliness and your pleasure. I think it’s an actual rebellion against society because a lot of people don’t know how to do that. When I interview women like you, it’s your ability to create your own world, and your own fantasy and to stay committed to it that is so impressive to me. It’s not easy at all. To me that is like activism.

Séverine: That’s sweet. There’s that saying - “live free or die” and I relate to it. I was writing something about my experience at the strip club and I’m not sure if I want to release it because I don’t know how vulnerable it will feel to talk about. But to me there’s nothing more degrading than having to work a 9-5. People want to say stripping is degrading but have you ever had a manager talk down to you while making you do the worst tasks on a long bar shift til 4am for minimum wage? That’s more degrading to me. 

Working at the strip club facilitates the other work I want to do and the times I’ve felt actually degraded I can count on one hand. Plus, I can spin around and slap the guy or have him kicked out. It has its struggles, don't get me wrong, but I have a lot of autonomy now.

Leo: It’s not necessarily a practical decision to just pursue your fantasy full time. I love people who just go for it. New York City is filled with these kinds of people who inspire me. Also as a sex worker, when you harness the power of your magical presence, people need to pay for that.

Séverine: It definitely isn’t. Some months are scary, especially trying to build projects from nothing, pumping my rent money into them. But I’m trying to keep something alive and build myself a future.

Leo: Do you have another event coming up?

Séverine: Yes, the next Gutter event is coming. I do Muay Thai in my real life as well. I was thinking of incorporating real fighting but I’m not sure about that, it would probably be bastardising the sport. I’m also collaborating with a prominent leather fetish brand in London, so there will be a catwalk of their designs in between matches. Bringing fashion in I think will add to this dichotomy of violence and beauty I’ve been on about.

Leo: Wow - I need to come to London for this! Tell me more about the latex piece you designed.

Séverine: Please do! My first design was called Vampi - it was based on Vampirella, the comic character. It’s not a direct cosplay, it was a sleeker design inspired by the shape of her costume. I’ll sort you out with one when I next see you. 

I was very demotivated to do my own brand after my apprenticeship and seeing how fucked the fashion world was, but now I have my own captive audience it was easy to be able to work by myself away from those people. I’ve released my first piece as a limited design because with the modelling and stripping I didn’t have enough time to have an entire brand as well. So I did a one week release - where you had a 7 day window of time to preorder the piece and then I would make as many as were ordered. So people ordered it and then I spent the next six weeks literally doing 14 or 16 hour days just making latex constantly. I turned my living room into a latex studio. It’s so much work for one girl, but don’t get me wrong, I loved it. It was really nice to wake up and have this one mission and just get on with it, because I think creative work can be hard. Sometimes you’re not doing something for a while and then the existential dread sets in. You have to motivate yourself a lot. This gave me a good purpose.

Leo: I hear that loud and clear and totally relate. I know there are so many fashion brands out there but what are 2 or 3 of your current favorites? The girls need to know where Severine likes to shop!

Séverine:  That’s very hard to answer shortly! There’s this brand KNWLS that kill me everytime they post their armour pieces. I’m so into armour and chainmail and stainless steel accessories - especially shoes. It’s way overdue that I find some to model. And this girl - Joaka Joakha - who works with a tattoo artist to tattoo latex pieces, so insanely cool. I really love Haram too, we met in Berlin, I approached her with a design idea that will hopefully come to fruition. She cuts up trainers and creates handbags and outfits out of them - I’ve not seen anything like it.

Severine: Well obviously I love Creepy. I like the way her designs flatter your body. Sian Hoffman is another favorite - she does very classic fetish corsetry. The shaping is perfect. She’s very much into the old fetish illustration too - you can see it in the shaping of her designs. I love her. R&M Leathers makes some of my favorite stuff, very inspired by vintage fetish styles and metal music. There’s this girl making chainmail called Catholic Guilt - their chainmail is just on another level. It’s incredible. And of course we shot chainmail together that was incredible - Cadena Y Rosas. Angelis Blade was a dear friend and she still makes really unique hand sculpted lingerie. Also, my new friend who I met and shot with in Paris - Human Chuo. She made these lingerie pieces hand drawn with a 3D pen, they took her weeks to make. She incorporated a little snail girl into the red design inspired by my slime project. I was very flattered.

But if people want everyday wear brand recommendations I love 1xBlue, Raga Malak, L’ecole des Femmes and I found this cool Japanese brand, her dresses are so cute - Fugui Hua . I love styling shiny nylon bodystockings, gloves, dresses and tights (just eBay ones) with higher end pieces. My friend Justified Arrogance has been doing some sick one off bootleg t-shirt designs. Football socks work great as knee socks if you want to be kawaii but still sporty. TNs are my most collected shoe and I love Louboutins, a black leather mule with a nice arch and toe cleavage or perspex heels.

Leo: Do you have a vision for a future Séverine brand or what it would encompass?

Séverine: At some point probably I will have to stop modeling but I want to publish my work. I’ll keep doing the latex and the event I hope, which has a lot of directions I could take it in. I’m also making a documentary right now. I’m producing it with a friend in a completely different industry. It’s about kink. I’ve been in this scene in London for over 10 years, or at least alongside them, since I’m not a dominatrix or anything - but they’re all my friends so it was very natural to lay out how to effectively communicate how it works. I respect the way they’re making this documentary because they wanted me to facilitate everything. They knew they couldn’t do it themselves because they’re not a part of the scene who’re understandably cautious of tourists. When I see certain things being made it’s clear to me that they have their own agenda of how they want to portray you - it happened to me before on another documentary and I don’t think they capture anything real. I would like to see more material for outsiders being made by insiders, within subcultures in general. 

Maybe in the future I would be interested to do a documentary about stripping because it’s quite a stigmatized and misunderstood world. I guess that interests me a lot - being able to communicate the reality of this job. I know I said I want to live in a fantasy but I think the reality of the fantasy is very interesting.