Yasmin Sewell: Building Vyrao, The £28k Rodarte Gamble, and Mood Dressing

An Excellent Fit

In this season finale, fashion industry veteran Yasmin Sewell discusses her transition from a highly influential buyer at Browns and Farfetc

Key takeaways

• Yasmin Sewell utilized her intuition to make high-stakes purchases, such as a £28,000 Rodarte gown that later gained celebrity traction.
• The late Joan Burstein ('Mrs. B') played a critical role in Yasmin's career by recruiting her back to London after she had returned to Australia.

Main topics

• Fashion Buying Career
• Legacy of Joan Burstein

Notable quotes

Scent is the most powerful tool to shift your mood and emotion.

Conclusion

The episode serves as a reflective look at how personal intuition can

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:00) Welcome to An Excellent Fit, a podcast on style, culture and the stories we tell through what we wear. Because getting dressed is never just about the clothes. I'm Kay Barron. And I'm Alice Haisley-Hayford. So it's our final episode of Series 1. I cannot believe it. I can't believe it. Ten episodes, well ten today. The first one with Pixie seems like years ago. A lifetime ago. But each one has been amazing. So please go back and watch every single one if you haven't yet. And our final guest for this season is Yasmin Seale. So excited. What a high note to end on. Definitely. I love Yasmin. And I love the fact that both of us have dressed up. We have. It's Monday morning. It is. We're both in a bit of a lacy gown. We are. Because I think that Yasmin, she has said, and I've seen her just appear in the day in an amazing gown. Speaker 3 (0:47) So Speaker 1 (0:47) I'm hoping that she's dressed up today. Yeah. Or she also goes quite casual, but very cool. Yeah. Either way, there's colour. Speaker 3 (0:55) I Speaker 1 (0:55) think there'll be Speaker 3 (0:55) a lot of colour today. Speaker 1 (0:56) That's what I'm Speaker 3 (0:57) hoping for. Speaker 1 (0:57) I've gone for the first lick of colour I've worn all season. Whoops. Simone Rocha. This is actually the underslip of another dress. And it's quite transparent. So I've just tied a black jumper. I like a little kind of like note of black when you're wearing like... Naturally. Yeah, a column of red, obviously. My comfort zone. because I felt it was probably too early for the good people of East London to see my knickers this morning. I think that's best, yeah. And for you, actually. But Speaker 3 (1:24) you Speaker 1 (1:24) can Speaker 3 (1:24) see them Speaker 1 (1:24) later. And then I just added the Gianvito Rossi Portofino sandals, which I danced in for two and a half hours straight. Wow. This weekend. My body is battered, but my feet feel, yeah, fresh and comfortable still. Excellent. Speaker 3 (1:39) Well, they're gorgeous. Speaker 1 (1:40) And because it is our final episode. We've gone for some diamonds. We've Speaker 3 (1:44) gone for some diamonds. Speaker 1 (1:45) Both of us wearing Lucy Delius. So I've got these amazing little huggy diamond earrings in. And then this incredible ring, large oval ring that takes up basically a third of one finger that I absolutely love. I love a bit of a statement ring, just one on one hand. Yeah, that's exquisite. Speaker 3 (2:02) But Speaker 1 (2:02) yeah, you look incredible too. Thank Speaker 3 (2:04) you very much. What I think I love with us, we never... like plan what we're going to wear for these episodes. But somehow there's always some coordination. We've both gone for like a lace trim dress. I felt a little bit underdressed at 9.30 leaving my house this morning. So I've thrown on... Underdressed as in naked. Speaker 1 (2:20) As Speaker 3 (2:20) in Speaker 1 (2:20) naked, Speaker 3 (2:20) yeah. I've thrown on with nothing underneath. shirt over the top of this gorgeous dress and it's an Australian brand. Yasmin is of course Australian so it felt fitting and then I finished it off with some Kate shoes that are one of my favourite pairs that I own and you know I always like a tiny bit of sparkle with any outfit. And I feel we've got to go out with a bang. So why not have a bit of sparkle? We've got sparkle on the feet and then obviously a gorgeous diamond necklace, which feels very lovely from Lucy Delius. But very excited to meet Yasmin now. Very Speaker 1 (2:50) excited to meet Yasmin and also very excited that after this, I'd say lunchtime, the top comes off, my jumper comes off. We're basically naked in the street. I think we should have some cocktails to celebrate. Let's do it Monday lunchtime. Exactly. Shall we meet Yasmin? Let's do it. Speaker 2 (3:02) I'm Yasmin Sewell and welcome to An Excellent Fit. Speaker 1 (3:06) Today we are joined by Yasmin Sewell, who has built an extraordinary career based on instinct, spotting designer talent early as one of the most influential London fashion buyers, firstly at her own store, Yasmin Show, then at Browns, Liberty and Farfetch, helping shape the way we shop and think about style. And more recently, channeling that same instinct into creating Vireo, an already incredibly successful fragrance brand rooted in emotion, energy and well-being. And I feel that only just scratches the surface of everything that you've done. She's one of the most intuitive people in fashion. And we are so glad that her intuition has brought her with us today. Yasmin, welcome to an excellent fit. Speaker 2 (3:48) Thank you. Speaker 1 (3:49) We are so pleased you're here. And thank you for finding the time to join us because I know you are very, very busy. We're all busy guys. But we asked you to dress in your favorite way today. Can you tell us what you're wearing? Speaker 2 (4:03) Yeah, that was a hard question for me, actually, because I don't think I have a favourite way. In fact, I got that question. I was like, oh, that's going to mess with my head. I think I just tend to go for what I feel comfortable in on the day and just what feels right. So it's usually quite a last minute choice. And I also like to wear things from people that I love and know. I'm wearing Isabella Burley's, one of her T-shirts from Climax Books, which I love. Which I tend to wear a lot. And Wales Bonner's. Slash Adidas trousers. Those trousers are so good. They're really good. They're really good. I've worn them to death. And they're for today. Yeah. And my favorite, perfect Dear Frances boots. They're like the perfect boot. Perfect. I'm obsessed with this look. But Speaker 3 (4:44) I think when I was thinking about you joining us, I couldn't sort of describe a uniform that you have. You're clearly so passionate about clothes, but you can wear a gown by day or tailoring by night or something more casual. Do you think you have a uniform or how do you approach the way you dress Speaker 2 (5:02) every Speaker 3 (5:03) day? Speaker 2 (5:03) I really don't have a uniform and I never wanted to have a uniform. I think that I do tend to have, if you go into my wardrobe, it's like this crazy diverse mix of things from tailoring to gowns to streetwear to avant-garde designers to vintage. So I think, you know. I kind of want to change it up. And I remember one of my best friends, I've been doing so many shoots and things for Vareo over the last few years and I haven't had time to think about my wardrobe. And one of my best friends, Vanessa Coyle, who's a great stylist, you know, I'm like, can you just get me some outfits? You know, she's an amazing stylist. Can you just help me because I haven't got time? And she's like, you know what, out of everyone, you're really hard because you don't have a look. But I think it's like, I don't know, it's fun just to be. I think I'd like to be many things. I enjoy being many things. I love your Speaker 1 (5:54) dressing up pictures on Instagram. I love it. You can see that behind you, you've got all your outfits you have been trying on the bed. And then recently you asked one of your sons. about what he thought of what you were wearing. Yes. Can you tell us about that? Because I love that moment. It Speaker 2 (6:09) was amazing. Also, yeah, I never tidy up my bed before I take the shot. I just think, you know, screw it. It's like, this is my room. Yeah, I had this great dress on by Joyce Bower, this great young designer, and I thought it was kind of sexy and cool. It was a little bit revealing, I think. And I wasn't wearing the right, quite the right bra when I went in and I was all dressed up, ready to go to these awards. And I walked in and he literally turned around and without even like thinking about it, he just went. Too much. No, actually it was, it's a bit much. Speaker 3 (6:38) Hey Renzi, what do you think of this dress? It's a bit much. It's a bit much. Okay, Speaker 1 (6:43) cool. But you still wore it. I still wore it. Yeah, good. I love that. I feel like you've lived many lives because I've known you for a long time now. And there are so many different angles and stories. to tell, I think, about how your journey has taken you here. But very top line, and do correct me if I'm wrong with any of this, you left school at 15, worked in real estate. And also basically became a partner in that real estate company at 17, right? I mean, you can't sell anything to anybody. I always think that. Moved to London at 20. Speaker 2 (7:20) 19. Speaker 1 (7:21) 19. Founded your own store at 22, which is incredible. And then after a call from Joan Burstein, Mrs. B, you became head of buying for Brown's Focus, which was arguably at the time the most influential of all fashion destinations. And then I think you took it to another level as well. But can we take a moment to talk about Mrs. B and about your time there? Speaker 2 (7:43) Yeah, actually, what happened was I had the store for a couple of years. It was very special to me. It Speaker 1 (7:48) was very special to everyone. Yeah, and it Speaker 2 (7:50) was like the late 90s, so it was pretty amazing. I was so young, I didn't quite know how to run a business, so I ended up losing the store and I had to go back to Australia and I lost my visa for the UK and I was just back in Australia thinking, something's been ripped away from me, you know? I felt like I'd... lost a part of myself with this door, but also a huge yearning for coming back to London and wanting to sort of like continue this momentum that I was on because I didn't want to be back at home in Australia. It wasn't really for me. And I felt like there was so much more for me to do here, but I kind of had no way of coming back. And actually four years went by before she called me. It was four years of my life. So she called me when I was 28 and I'd been gone for four years. And I was kind of like just thinking, when am I ever going to get back there? You know, and that's when I went on kind of a healing journey too. So that kind of led me to where I am now. But what was crazy was that I remember it was December. I was 28 and I was like, okay, I'm done with being here. I need to get back to London. I want to get back into that world. There's something I haven't done yet. And I just sort of sat and waited for something to happen. And she called me two weeks later and she'd never called me before. We'd never spoken before. And you hadn't met her at all? She had come to my store, but I wasn't there. And she'd loved my store. And also my first job before I opened up my store was the window dresser of Browns. Although we never met because I was just like the assistant window dresser, right? But she knew me from the store. So four years later, she just found my number and she called me up and she said, come back to London and work for me. Speaker 3 (9:25) Wow. And she got me a Speaker 2 (9:26) visa. I wouldn't be here without her. And I think that I've been thinking a lot about her since she passed because we had kind of a tricky relationship. We were a little bit like head to head. And I was thinking about it. I think we were quite similar in many ways. And I think that I felt kind of bad. I was thinking, oh, we kind of, we didn't always agree on things. And I used to push back Speaker 1 (9:49) on her quite a bit. You both clearly were led by instinct. Speaker 2 (9:53) Yes, she was the only one. Like we were really, in fact, I remember when I flew in to meet her and her