The Tale of Tash Sefton

Photography: Trish Lee Hair: Penny Baldas from Oscar Oscar Salons in Paddington Makeup: Rajja Richani from Napoleon Perdis Words: Georgie Abay

Given it’s her job to inspire other women to dress well, it’s no surprise that Tash Sefton is one remarkably stylish mother. Day-to-day, the co-founder of fashion blog TheyAllHateUs is dressed in an effortless mix of ripped jeans, striped T-shirts and designer bags. “My fashion staples are denim, basics, and amazing shoes and handbags. Denim is my thing,” she says. For our shoot, she pulls out everything from a classic Saint James striped tee to bohemian Gypsy River anklet cuffs. “We have a unique, very Australian take on dressing and essentially are very commercial. Our premise is high/low dressing. We believe this is the key to a successful blog and e-commerce. Being aspirational, yet obtainable. No trick, just us,” she says of her and business partner Elle Ferguson’s approach to personal style.

Her sunny home in Sydney’s north, which she shares with her husband Mark and their two gorgeous boys, Jay, 8, and Mac, 2, is filled with pieces collected throughout their life together. “I love living here because the beach is our backyard,” she says of her seaside home. “My husband Mark and I are very scared to live in suburbia. We prefer smaller with a spectacular view and walking distance to everything.”

She might make a living from dressing well, but Sefton couldn’t be more down to earth. “I’m happiest at home surrounded by my husband, children, mum, dad, sisters and two best friends Elle and Gretel. I love music in the background, enjoying my mum’s cooking and laughing about some crazy story from the past. My style is actually very simple, I just have very expensive taste in handbags. My family think I’m the biggest brat, but laugh at my desire for beautiful clothing, the holes in all my jeans and exaggerated stories (apparently I embellish a lot!). I get anxious if there is mess and am a control freak.” She might admit to being a control freak, but motherhood has made her more relaxed. “Motherhood has taught me that you can’t breastfeed and vacuum at the same time,” she says, laughing. “I would always do a million things at once and being a Mum has taught me that having crumbs on the floor is ok – for 5 seconds! I had to let things go, as just couldn’t do everything my way all the time. It was a nice realization.”

Sefton is incredibly inspiring. Her fashion blog, TheyAllHateUs, was launched with partner and best friend Ferguson over six years ago while she was the head of womenswear at General Pants. “I was there in total for 13 years and had the most incredible position running a multi million dollar retail business. I worked with my women’s buying team to source brands locally and abroad and developed new brands if there was a gap in the market,” she says. “I spent three months each year overseas essentially ‘shopping’ and bringing these trends home for the Australian market.” It’s where she met Ferguson, who was the company’s head of women’s merchandising at the time. “Our roles intertwined and we became best friends. TheyAllHateUs started as a hobby really – a side project.”

The site’s success lead to the pair leaving their jobs to focus on it full time. “We saw that TheyAllHateUs was the future of retailing and have since launched our e-commence site using our experience as ‘retailers’ and in addition and also work with brands in sponsorship, partnerships and behind the scenes developing concepts and styling.” The blog now gets over 320,000 unique visits a month.

On managing motherhood with work, she says: “I love work, so I just make it work. Plus my husband Mark is very hands on and my family helps me A LOT! Each person has a car seat in their car. I’m so so lucky. My family is very involved in my children’s lives.” Being her own boss also helps. “I work now around my children’s schedules and now as my business is remote, I can work anywhere, with them along the way. It’s very cool.” Time for herself is still rare and something she’s working on. “Slowly, slowly! I need to stop being such a control freak and Elle and I are in the process of building our team, so it’s not 24/7 TheyAllHateUs.”

Tash’s little list of loves:
Denim – anytime I buy new denim I shriek.
Lite Luxe – lights for my face – amazing!
The new Vogue Paris just landed.
Country Road homewares.
Goyard bags.
Louis Vuitton luggage – I’m about to get new carry on!
Vintage boho trinkets from Gypsy River.
Bunting – I have it everywhere at home.
Keeping Up with the Kardashians – I’m addicted.
Balmain – I need to add to my current collection.

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