Yasmin Abdallah, better known professionally as Yasmin Sewell, is an Australian fashion expert, businesswoman, and the founder of the fragrance brand Vyrao. She built a successful career in London fashion through buying, consulting, and creative roles. She is also known as the former wife of British actor Rufus Sewell.
Although her brief marriage to Rufus often brings people to her name, Yasmin has a long career of her own. She has worked with respected fashion stores, supported young designers before they became famous, and later moved into the fragrance and wellness business. Her professional story stretches from Sydney to London and from a small fashion shop to running her own brand.
Who Is Yasmin Abdallah?
Yasmin Abdallah is an Australian fashion figure with Lebanese family roots. After moving to London in 1996, she became part of the city's fashion industry and eventually built a career lasting more than two decades.
Today, she is more commonly known as Yasmin Sewell. She continued using the Sewell surname professionally after her short marriage to actor Rufus Sewell.
This difference in names can sometimes cause confusion. People searching for Yasmin Abdallah may find most of her professional work under Yasmin Sewell. Both names refer to the same person.
Her work has covered fashion retail, buying, consulting, creative leadership, fragrance, and wellness. She is now closely associated with Vyrao, the company she founded in 2021.
Yasmin Abdallah's Early Life in Australia
Yasmin grew up in Sydney, Australia, in a Lebanese Australian family. Her early years were spent in Sydney's eastern suburbs.
Her mother ran a small hair salon in Kingsford. Although Yasmin has explained that she did not grow up in a traditional fashion household, beauty and personal style were still present around her because of her mother's work.
There is limited dependable public information about Yasmin's exact birth date and formal education. Rather than following a widely documented fashion school path, her career is better understood through the practical experience she gained after moving overseas.
Australia remained important to her even after she established herself in Britain. She has spoken about her connection to the outdoor lifestyle, family, and relaxed environment she knew growing up.
Moving From Sydney to London
A major change came in 1996 when Yasmin moved from Australia to London.
London was already one of the world's important fashion cities, and she began building her place in the industry through direct experience. Instead of starting inside a major fashion company, she opened a small shop on Poland Street in Soho.
The store carried work from emerging designers. This gave her an opportunity to find interesting fashion before it reached a much wider audience.
One of the designers whose work appeared in her early store was Rick Owens, who later became a major international fashion name.
Running the shop helped Yasmin develop one of the skills that would become important throughout her career. She learned how to notice designers and ideas that had strong potential before they became widely popular.
Building a Career in Fashion
After her early experience as a store owner, Yasmin moved into larger fashion roles.
She became especially known for fashion buying. A buyer helps decide which designers and products a store should sell. The role requires an understanding of both style and business because a buyer must consider what is creative as well as what customers may want.
Yasmin worked with Browns, a well known London fashion store. During this period, she supported Christopher Kane at an early stage in his career. She bought his work in 2006, before he developed the international reputation he has today.
She later worked at Liberty, another famous London store. There, she recognized the potential of J.W. Anderson and encouraged him to expand beyond menswear into womenswear.
These decisions helped build her reputation for spotting promising designers.
Her role was not simply about following fashion trends. Much of her value came from identifying ideas early and understanding how new designers could fit into the wider fashion market.
Her Work With Style.com and Farfetch
Yasmin's career continued to grow beyond traditional fashion stores.
She became fashion director at Style.com when the business was being developed as an online shopping platform. This gave her experience in the changing world of digital fashion retail.
After the shopping business was sold to Farfetch, Yasmin moved into a senior creative role at Farfetch.
She also worked as a consultant and adviser. Consulting allowed her to use the knowledge she had gained from years of buying, retail, and creative work to help different companies.
By this stage, she had spent many years working across several parts of fashion. Her experience included owning a shop, choosing designers for major retailers, working in online fashion, and helping shape creative ideas for brands.
This broad experience later became useful when she decided to build a company of her own.
Yasmin Abdallah and Rufus Sewell
Yasmin Abdallah married British actor Rufus Sewell in 1999.
Rufus is known for his work across television, film, and theatre. Their marriage was brief and ended after a short period.
Because Rufus became a well known actor, Yasmin is still often described online as his former wife. However, their marriage represents only a small part of her adult life and career.
An important detail is that she continued using the surname Sewell after the marriage ended. As a result, most of her later fashion interviews, professional work, and business activities appear under the name Yasmin Sewell rather than Yasmin Abdallah.
Her professional success continued long after the marriage. She developed her own position in fashion through years of work rather than through her connection to her former husband.
Marriage to Kyle Robinson and Family Life
Yasmin later married Australian fashion businessman Kyle Robinson.
The couple has two sons, Knox and Renzo. Reports about the family have placed them in London, where Yasmin built much of her career.
Motherhood became another important part of her life while she continued working in a demanding industry. Fashion can involve regular travel, meetings, events, and busy fashion week schedules.
Yasmin has spoken in past interviews about wanting enough freedom in her professional life to spend time with her children.
She generally keeps her children away from unnecessary public attention. For this reason, details about their private lives are not an important part of understanding her career.
Why Yasmin Changed Her Career Direction
After more than 20 years in fashion, Yasmin began looking for a different professional direction.
She had developed a strong interest in wellness and ideas connected with energy and personal wellbeing. She wanted to combine those interests with her experience in design, branding, and beauty.
She left her last major fashion role in 2018. By 2019, she was developing the idea that eventually became Vyrao.
Moving into fragrance may appear very different from fashion buying, but Yasmin could use many of the skills she already had. She understood branding, product presentation, retail, design, and how to build a clear creative identity.
Instead of choosing products and ideas for other businesses, she was preparing to build something of her own.
Yasmin Abdallah Founded Vyrao
Yasmin launched Vyrao in 2021.
The company combines fragrance with ideas about mood, wellness, and everyday rituals. Its products have included perfumes, candles, incense, and scents for the home.
The brand has worked with professional perfumers and established companies within the fragrance industry. At the same time, its identity reflects Yasmin's interest in wellness.
Design is also an important part of Vyrao. The colors, bottles, packaging, photography, and retail spaces are treated as part of the overall brand experience.
Yasmin's fashion background was useful in creating this identity. Her previous career had taught her how presentation can affect the way people understand a product.
By 2026, Vyrao had grown to offer ten genderless fragrances. The business had also completed three rounds of investment, showing that the company had moved beyond its early launch stage.
Vyrao's Growth in 2026
Five years after its launch, Vyrao remained the main focus of Yasmin's professional work.
In February 2026, the company opened a pop up space at Harvey Nichols in London. This gave the brand another physical retail presence while it continued developing its fragrance collection.
The business also expanded beyond perfume. Products such as candles, incense, and home scents allowed Vyrao to work across different parts of fragrance and personal wellbeing.
Yasmin remains identified as the founder of the company.
Her move from fashion into fragrance was therefore not simply a short project. It developed into a new stage of her career and gave her the opportunity to lead a business based on her own ideas.
What Makes Yasmin Abdallah's Career Different?
Yasmin's career has changed several times.
She began by opening a small fashion store in London. She then moved into buying and helped support designers who later became internationally known. Her career expanded into consulting, online fashion, and creative leadership before she started her own fragrance company.
The common link between these jobs is her interest in design and finding ideas that feel new.
Her early support of designers such as Christopher Kane and J.W. Anderson showed her ability to notice talent. Years later, she used that experience in a different way by developing Vyrao.
Her story is therefore much broader than her brief marriage to Rufus Sewell. Fashion was already an important part of her life, and her professional work continued to develop long after that relationship ended.
Yasmin Abdallah's Life Today
By 2026, Yasmin is mainly focused on Vyrao and is widely known professionally as Yasmin Sewell.
She continues to have strong connections with London, where much of her fashion career developed. Her family life has also been based there in past reports.
Although she remains visible through her business, she does not make every part of her personal life public. Her professional work provides a much clearer picture than online claims about private matters.
There is also no dependable public figure for Yasmin Abdallah's personal net worth. Her business activities and long fashion career are documented, but that does not provide enough information to calculate her personal wealth accurately.
Her exact age is another detail that should not be guessed because a strongly supported birth date is not available from the information used for this biography.
Final Thoughts
Yasmin Abdallah, better known as Yasmin Sewell, has spent much of her adult life building a career in fashion and creative business. After growing up in Sydney, she moved to London in 1996 and started with a small Soho fashion store.
She later worked with respected retailers and supported young designers before they became major names. Her career then expanded into consulting and creative roles before she changed direction and founded Vyrao in 2021.
Her brief marriage to Rufus Sewell explains why many people first search for her and why she continues to use the Sewell surname. However, her own professional work tells a much larger story. Today, her main focus is Vyrao, where she has brought together her experience in fashion, design, fragrance, and wellness.
(FAQs)
Who is Yasmin Abdallah?
Yasmin Abdallah is an Australian fashion expert and businesswoman who is professionally known as Yasmin Sewell. She is the founder of the fragrance and wellness brand Vyrao.
Was Yasmin Abdallah married to Rufus Sewell?
Yes. Yasmin married British actor Rufus Sewell in 1999. Their marriage was brief, but she continued using the Sewell surname professionally after they separated.
Who is Yasmin Sewell married to now?
Yasmin later married Australian fashion businessman Kyle Robinson. They have two sons named Knox and Renzo.
What is Vyrao?
Vyrao is a fragrance and wellness brand founded by Yasmin in 2021. Its products include perfumes, candles, incense, and home scents.
Why is Yasmin Abdallah known in fashion?
She built a long career as a fashion buyer, consultant, and creative leader. She worked with businesses including Browns, Liberty, Style.com, and Farfetch and became known for supporting promising designers early in their careers.
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