The Coven girl gang

We met up with Sapphire, founder of The Coven, an online membership for female founders and freelancers, to find out more about her girl gang, her tattoos and inspiration.

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What inspired you to set up The Coven? What’s the ethos around it? Do you have any membership requirements or rules? 
When I started, my first ever business (a flower studio) I went from being around lots of people all of the time to working by myself. I don’t think until you are in a situation where you work by yourself all of the time, you realise just how isolating it can be. I was battling such conflicting feelings – I was so excited to be running a business and so desperate for it to work but, on the hand, I was also extremely lonely.

This isolation inspired me to build a virtual platform to bring women from across the UK (and now the world) together, so that you’d have somewhere to log in, a place to go to break that isolation and make you feel supported even when you’re sat by yourself.

We don’t have any requirements, we are a Coven not a clique – we are for those who need us, as long as you identify as female and are happy to follow our only rule, which is to be nice, then you are welcome through our virtual doors.

How is it different from other clubs? How do we join? It’s funny, I get asked this question a lot now. When I started The Coven, there wasn’t much else like it, I knew of two other membership platforms who also targeted female founders, one of which was in America. Fast forward 15 months since launch and they are everywhere.

Our main difference is that absolutely everyone is welcome, we have been all about community over competition since day one. And we encourage our members to adopt the same ethos. What’s so beautiful about The Coven is that there are women from hundreds of different industries, all following different paths – we aren’t targeted at a particular industry or a particular type of person. We just want to support those who need it, we are for the people who believe in the power of community and want to be a part of something magical.

Another difference, one that isn’t as obvious, is that I work on The Coven full time and I have since day one. I’m heavily involved, even now we have a team, in the running of the business. I chat to members via email every day, reply to posts in our FB community and often jump on accountability calls to find out what a member has been doing that month. Many platforms take your money and leave you to it, I care about every single one of my members, I see them as people and not money signs.

We have a waitlist, you can add your name to the list to join us. We reopen doors on 1 October and will let in only 500 members, act fast!

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Saph, tell us a little about your background, where you grew up and where you live now? What do you love about it? With a name like Sapphire people always expect me to have an exotic background but I was born in Crawley, West Sussex – you can’t get any less exciting. I moved around a lot when I was younger we lived in various places in Sussex, West Sussex and Surrey before moving to Essex when I was nine.

IMG_5204I went to Thailand at 19, tried New York at 23 and then moved to Ibiza at 24, which is where I’ve been living for the past eight months. I’ve actually made the decision and taken on a flat back in Essex near my family. It was a really difficult decision to make, I’d gone through a real bout of loneliness in Ibiza (loneliness seems to follow me!) as I didn’t manage to make very many friends. Once again it was difficult because I had all these people telling me how amazing it must be to live in Ibiza and how lucky I was but… a beautiful view isn’t always fun if you don’t have anyone to share it with. I looked at moving to London but the prices are extortionate and I craved being close enough to my family to have Sunday roasts and see my friends. The flat has literally been signed today, so I’m back to being an Essex girl for at least the next year or so!

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Tell us about your tattoos and piercings. Are you planning more? I am covered in tattoos, all of which are extremely random. Tattoos to me, are like memories and I tend to get them as a spur of the moment thing to look back on… this is sometimes a good way to do it but has lead to some hilarious regrets.

My first tattoo I got on my first girls holiday to Magaluf. I absolutely hated the place, maybe if I’d gone to Ibiza I’d have got a classier tattoo. One drunken night led to me getting a chinese symbol on my back. It says courage, to remind me to be brave. The first thing my mum said when I got home was ‘wow, Chinese symbols, they were tacky even in the ’90s’. Every time someone asks me about it, it makes me laugh, although for a while I regretted it, now it just makes me smile.

My second tattoo covers the bottom half of my left arm and is of two very detailed red roses, a completely random idea at the time, wasn’t a particular lover of flowers but I went on years later to own my florist, so it ended up making sense.

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Another funny one… I am a HUGE Bill Murray fan and have been for years. During my time in Thailand, my friend said he was going to get an ‘I love Nicholas Cage’ tattoo and so I ran off to get a Bill Murray one. Into my local tattoo shop, shoved down my shit drawing of what I wanted and got inked right then and there. I marched back to the cafe where we all hung out, next to my little wooden hut to proudly show everyone. Turns out he spelt it wrong. It says Bill Mummy. F*cked it.

They aren’t all funny, some are cheesy. When I had a huge and very messy break-up just a few days before my and ex partner had booked to go travelling around Asia together, I was absolutely shattered – both because we’d broken up and because it meant the trip I’d planned for eight months was cancelled. I couldn’t bear to go alone so I said f*ck it and booked a one-way flight to New York and found an apartment to rent. While there I nursed myself back to full happiness and got a tattoo of a broken heart with the American flag in it to remind myself of how strong I am and how much fun I had.

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What are your hopes for the future? My only personal goal is to be happy, I want to live a life that makes me happy almost every day. Too many people wish each day away, whether they are waiting for summer or counting down to a holiday or imagining how things will be better if only X thing changed. None of us know how long we’ve got (I have another tattoo that says life is short!) and when our time will be up. I want to enjoy whatever time the universe has planned for me.

The Coven is a whole other story, I’ve got targets and plans coming out of my ears. In 2020 we are expanding, we already have members in 16 countries around the world but we are planning to expand our events worldwide.

You can sign up to The Coven waitlist (which opens tomorrow, 1 October) at thecovengirlgang.com

T&I go to Torture Garden

Emily cover featureInspired by our Horror Issue cover, starring the stunning tattoo artist Emily Alice Johnston in a fetish inspired shoot featuring beautiful latex outfits, we thought team T&I should celebrate and maybe try out some latex wearing, too. And what better place to do it than at the World’s largest Fetish / Body Art Club: Torture Garden, and their Christmas Ball at Electrowerkz in north London? Our editor Alice Snape had never been before… here she tells us all about her first time.

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If you’ve never been to Torture Garden before (named after the 1899 novel The Torture Garden (Le Jardin des supplices) by Octave Mirbeau, which was set in a Chinese Garden of Torture.), I highly recommend it. Although I have to admit it, I was a little apprehensive before I attended – not because I am a prude, but because I had never been to a fetish club before and I had absolutely no idea what to expect, or what was expected of me. I also had  no idea what to wear!

A friend recommended Meat Clothing and I spotted a gorgeous pink latex dress on their website and ordered it immediately. And, I have to say, I felt pretty special in it. I had never worn latex before, and a pink babydoll was pretty perfect for my first time.

Editor Alice Snape, horror issue cover star Emily Alice Johnston and managing editor Keely Reichardt pre Torture Garden.
Editor Alice Snape, horror issue cover star Emily Alice Johnson and managing editor Keely Reichardt pre Torture Garden.

 

Managing editor Keely and I got ready together on the evening… drank some fizz and perfected our make-up. As Keely has been a couple of times before, she explained a little about her last experiences… and how much fun she had! We also met up with our horror issue cover star Emily for some pre drinks too…

As soon as we arrived at the TG Christmas ball location, Electrowerkz in north London, I felt like I was transported to another world of fetish, fun and fantasy. People were dressed in latex, stunning lingerie, collars and gimp suits… and Electrowerks had been transformed into a magical Christmas fantasy land. Still a little nervous, we did a round of shots and then went off to explore…

Managing editor Keely ready for her night at Torture Garden
Managing editor Keely ready for her night at Torture Garden

I ended up spending the entire night roaming around to see what was going on. There were lots of different rooms – one just for couples and a dungeon (for those who want to explore their sexuality, although there are also strict codes of conduct, touching anyone without permission  is strictly forbidden), there’s also shows, performances and dance floors, too. I chatted to interesting people, finding out about their kinks, and of course, it’s ok if you don’t have any, too… TG accepts anyone (as long as you dress up! If your outfit wouldn’t turn heads in the street – don’t bother wearing it to Torture Garden). TG is a space where you can be whoever you want to be. You can escape reality for the evening into a magical world. It is for hedonists, party people and those who just want to let go for one night. TG attracts open-minded individuals, from clubbers to alternative arty weirdos, burlesque cabaret fans to sophisticated BDSM regulars (famous visitors have included Dita Von Teese, Alexander McQueen, Jean Paul Gaultier, Boy George, Katie Price and Courtney Love)…

Editor Alice and a pre TG selfie, of course.
Editor Alice and a pre TG selfie, of course

The evening drew to close far too quickly… and I couldn’t believe it was 6am by the time Keely and I left. We literally forgot all of our worries for one evening and danced and chatted and met interesting people. And everyone we met was so respectful. I had worried that I might get hassled (I have a boyfriend and didn’t want to join in), but I didn’t. In fact, I probably got hassled less than a standard night out, where drunken men often grab women without permission. On the way home, Keely and I chatted about how we couldn’t wait to attend the next event… and plan another incredible outfit. There’s no other situation where you can wear whatever you want and be exactly who you want to be, surrounded by people who are just as weird as us. See you at the next one?

Torture Garden NYE is on 30 December at Ministry of Sound in London and Torture Garden Valentines Ball is on 13 February at Coronet in London.

Take a look at some of the other TG party goers in this selection of photos from the evening (photos by MarcusT):

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