In 2003, Penthouse Magazine laid off a young girl with a face full of piercings and a bright blue mohawk. Little did they know, she would turn out to be one of the fetish world’s most sought after model/personalities. NY based Darenzia is her name and she reigns at the top of the list of many photographers we’ve interviewed as their favorite model – several who call her a close personal friend as well. Spend five minutes with her and you’ll be captivated by her beauty, sophistication, intelligence, and ability to to tell a fart joke or two.

Many of the photographers that we’ve interviewed have cited you as one of their all-time favorites.  How does that make you feel?
That makes me feel both honored and humbled!!!  Especially since you’ve featured many photographers that I deeply admire on a professional level, but also count as close personal friends.

In terms of being a professional model, what qualities do you feel have set you apart and have given you the career that you have?
I may have a skewed viewpoint but I feel like the industry is a lot different now than it was when I began to get serious about exploring fetish work in April 2003, when I first traveled to LA and worked with the photographers I admired like Christine Kessler, Steve Diet Goedde and Perry Gallagher.  Back then, there really only seemed to be a handful of women seriously attempting to make a living doing high-end fetish work (and even fewer successfully doing it) and, at the same time, the “alt porn” thing was only really just beginning to make a notable societal and monetarily viable impact. I feel I kind of just happened upon the scene at exactly the right time, and I didn’t really fit into either mold – I wasn’t “alt enough” because I didn’t have tattoos or I was “too alt” because I had blue hair, but somehow, being stuck in the middle seemed to set me apart.   I was just being myself, but I think the juxtaposition of my alt appearance against my high-end fashion predilections and styling confused people enough into remembering me.

I just didn’t care and set out to do the work I wanted to, regardless of the way I looked.  I didn’t want to just shoot “punk” stuff, I didn’t just want to shoot “glamour” stuff, I didn’t just want to shoot “fetish” stuff.  I simply wanted to explore every aspect of the industry that I had an interest in and refused to limit myself to one specific genre. I wanted to explore my personal sexuality and shoot what I found intriguing.  I let myself evolve naturally as part of that process. How I made it work, I’ll never know.

I think it was just pure luck and if I wasn’t in the right place at the right time another model could have easily taken my place. There is such an influx of models attempting a career in fetish now I can’t imagine how hard it is for someone to be able to truly stand out.   If I arrived on the scene now instead of then, I don’t know if I would be able to achieve anywhere near the same level of success.

We know you’ve modeled in some unconventional photo shoots in the past. Let’s flip the switch and ask what has been some of your most conservative shoots to date?
I’m honestly completely stumped.  I have no idea!  I guess any of the ones where I keep my clothes on!

What initially attracted you to the world of fetish modeling?
When I got laid off from Penthouse in Nov 2003, I didn’t want to have to find another “real job”, simply because I knew it would be difficult to find another corporate job with the same amount of freedom I had when I worked there. I also had a face full of piercings and a bright blue mohawk that I knew would make it hard to find another 9-5 gig.  I had ended a stifling relationship earlier that year and was with someone that was supportive of my lifestyle proclivities. I’d been involved in the New York underground fetish scene since the mid-ninetie – attending, playing and performing at clubs and modeling/shooting for various designers I met in the scene and I realized that I missed exploring that part of my personality.  So, armed with my savings, my portfolio of images from my LA trip earlier that year, and the business sense I gained from my experiences at Penthouse I decided to give fetish modeling a professional go.

For those who have never had the pleasure of wearing a latex garment, explain the sensation(s) that personally draw you in.
The white chocolate-like smell, the slick texture, the way it hugs each and every curve on your body… and if it’s transparent latex it’s being nude but kicked up a notch.

We just read in your Playboy.Com interview that stand up comedy would be your dream job.  Please explain.
I believe that stand up comedians are some of the most amazing people in the world, simply because it’s such a difficult gig to be successful at, and unlike other types of entertainers – they have to endure the struggle to survive while at the same time make people LAUGH.  Humour has gotten me though a lot of dark times, and I’ve taken a lot of negative experiences and turned them into comedy.  Laughter is therapeutic. The idea of actually having the guts to get onstage by myself and do stand up sends chills down my spine though.  It’s such a place of raw vulnerability.  Being naked on the internet is much less scary.

If you could be a comedy writer or an actor in any sit-com, what would it be and why?
I honestly don’t enjoy many sitcoms, but there are a few notable exceptions.  Arrested Development was pure genius. Jason Bateman’s character pretty much mimics my sense of humour exactly.  Sarcastic while being self-effacing, yet still having just the slightest bit of superior priggishness that the idiotic won’t be able to grasp, but at the same time managing not to be a pretentious off-putting jackass. He’s just so dry on that show, it slays me.

Tina Fey’s sense of humor and comedy writing is pretty goddamn funny too.  She’s a hot woman who manages to also be smart, dorky and downright enjoys potty humour.  Fart jokes=love.  So, I wouldn’t be adverse to a stint on 30 Rock.  But, besides the two shows I already mentioned, unless I could get in a time machine and be a cast member on Seinfeld that’s about as far as my knowledge of the sitcom goes!

And we also read that you have a degree in English literature.  Is it true that you’re working on a novel?
I’m working on a novel much in the same way that Brian on Family Guy is working on his novel.  Anyway, for the past 15 or so years I’ve been keeping diaries and meticulous accounts of all my personal experiences throughout the world.  I write in a very stream-of-consciousness manner and prefer to create characters based upon my own experiences and how I interpret people’s reactions around me.  So, I’m developing fictional characters that are loosely based on the experiences I’ve had and those people that I’ve come in contact with throughout my life.  That said, I have absolutely no desire to write an autobiography, because the last thing the literary community needs is another “controversial, yet titillating tale of a woman working in and out of the sex industry.”  I wouldn’t want “Darenzia” in any way attached to any published works of fiction, and unless I find a way to clone myself, actually finishing a novel is a fantasy in and of itself.

What writers are you a fan of?
Chuck Palahniuk, Bret Easton Ellis, Henry James, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Philip K. Dick, William Gibson. I don’t read nearly enough anymore.

And our last discovery is that you’re an ex-ballerina.  It appears that the arts in general, have played a big impact on your life, correct?
Yes, and they’ve also had a very negative impact on my bank account.  HAHAHA!

Have you been able to channel your artistic expression into modeling and performing as well?
When I stopped doing ballet I quit cold turkey.  I literally woke up one morning, miserable, uninspired and underfed and quit.  It was one of those “the muse had left me” sort of situations and I found that world wasn’t really the place where I could channel my creative energy in a healthy or viable manner.  Ballet was no longer freeing to me, it became a chore and I was no longer actually expressing anything coming from within myself.  Quitting left a definite void that needed to be filled.  Performing and modeling became a way for me to express myself physically, but on my own terms. Dance definitely laid the groundwork for everything I’ve done.

Describe one of your live performances.
My performances range from standard stripteases to fully themed shows.  Most of my shows have a bit of a comedic element to them, some can get pretty dark.   One of my more elaborate acts consists of me and two other dancers swaying in separate window boxes on stage as my pimp brings a long a prospective john to pick out a girl for the evening. I’m chosen and I start out slowly stripping and dancing for him, as the others exit the stage.  He becomes violent with me and I run away but he flashes me more money and I become seductive again, luring him to a chair where I’m able to restrain and blindfold him.  The music changes and my pimp and the dancers return – equipped with a bag of torturous devices. I proceed to torture my aggressor with the assistance of my dancers, all the while maintaining a sly grin.  In the end, my pimp slits his throat, he’s drug off the stage and myself and my dancers go back to our windows, swaying while the lights fade out.  It sounds really heavy, but the fact that the torture happens to “Stuck in the Middle With You” from Reservoir Dogs, makes it absolutely ridiculous.

Wow.  Maybe we should call you Mr. Blonde.  You’re based in NYC.  It takes a certain woman to confidently walk down a busy Manhattan street especially full of construction workers.  How has NYC shaped your personality and attitude?
Living here in NYC for the past 15 years I’ve learned a lot of lessons, most importantly, it’s definitely a city where you can’t just sit on your ass and expect to succeed.  NYC doesn’t breed complacency.  It’s definitely a town that keeps me inspired and motivated just by the sheer fact that you absolutely have to work your butt off just to survive. I thrive on the tension, the fast pace, and the unknown which is exactly what drew me here in the first place.  It’s consistently living on the edge and it’s incredible.

Have you ever thought of giving Hollywood or any other city a shot or is just not up to your speed?
There’s been a couple of times that I considered moving to LA, but in the end I just love New York City way too much to ever leave it permanently.  I love the pace, the vibe, the late nights, being able to walk everywhere I need to.  I’ve never even gotten my driver’s license!!  I also like to travel to Europe for work occasionally and NYC is a nice central home base to both the West Coast and the EU.

The bulk of the work I do/people I shoot with are in Los Angeles, though this has changed a bit in the last year or so as I’ve found a core group of talented people I really like to collaborate with in NYC.  I think it’s benefited me that I haven’t moved to LA because when I do come to town, people are excited to see me and/or book me.  I have a feeling that if I moved there, I’d just become “old hat” really quickly.  When I come to town, I usually stay for about 2 weeks at a time.  Any more than that and I find myself getting into “trouble” or somehow getting sucked into drama. Short and sweet’s the name of my game.  Leave ‘em wanting more, not groaning from an over-stayed welcome!!!

Tell us about your website and what type of content viewers can find there.
Well, I actually have two main websites–my membership site Darenzia.net and my blog MyFetishLife.net.

Darenzia.net basically covers all of my work from 2004 to the present, so there’s currently close to 600 photo sets up featuring every era of my career from my gothy/punk pierced, mohawked, pre-boobjob look to my current more glam-but-still-a-wierdo D-cup stylings.  The majority of the content is myself solo but I do feature quite a lot of g/g sets (more so in recent years, as I made more hot friends in the industry I wanted to publicly sleaze upon).  Some of my shoots are straight up fashion, some are softcore and recently some have gotten pretty damn explicit – but even when I’m doing dirty things I still like to keep the styling impeccable so you’ll see a lot of latex, corsetry, high-end designer heels/clothing, stockings and gorgeous lingerie.  I’ve also got lots of video featured and I’m working on doing more video work in 2010.

MyFetishLife.net is my blog site and even though I bought the domain only about a year ago, I’ve archived my old Darenzia.net ramblings on it, so it’s a chronicle of a lot of my adventures in the industry since 2004.  Recently, it’s also become a way to see previews of my sets on my members’ site.  I haven’t been actually blogging consistently the past few months because I’ve been so swamped but I’m hoping that will be able to change soon, because I really miss sharing my adventures with my readers, and they’ve been telling me they miss it too.  I don’t want my blog to become simply a preview to my membership site!

For someone who has accomplished a lot in their career, what’s the future have in store?
I get this question a lot and it’s always a little difficult for me to answer.  I’ve never been the type of person to say “this is where I want to be in 5, 10, 15 years…”  I tend to make short term plans, attack them, and move on to the next thing.  When something goes wrong/unexpected, I adapt and adjust and find a way to make it work and I thrive when I stick to that philosophy.  Any time I’ve deviated from it, it’s been disastrous.  I live in the present, which is not to say I’m not prepared for the future, I’m just not so concerned with what might/could happen that it affects how I make choices in the present.  I tend to feel stifled if I obsess about what my future might hold and when that happens I tend to become paralyzed, which really fucks things up in the present!  So….PRESENTLY (LOL) I’m focusing on perhaps finding a manager to deal with the more banal aspects of my business which would free me up to focus more on the creative.  I’ve always run every single aspect of my business myself because I have control issues, but it’s become apparent that I need to let go a bit in order to progress both creatively and professionally.  This past year has been a bit of a transitional soul-searching time for me, so I’d like to spend 2010 focusing on performing, shooting and writing more and less time on things like back-end website maintenance and promotion.

Photos courtesy of Holly Randall, PhotoVance, Ellen Stagg, Christine Kessler, Richard Avery, Alejandra Guerrero, Marla Rutherford, Nelly Recchia.

Taste More:
www.darenzia.net
www.myfetishlife.net
www.twitter.com/Darenzia