Lisa Ho (born 1960) is an Australian fashion designer born in

Albury Albury () is a major regional city in New South Wales, Australia. It is located on the Hume Highway and the northern side of the Murray River. Albury is the seat of local government for the council area which also bears the city's name – the ...

, on the

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and Victorian border.

Early life

Ho began sewing at age 4 inspired by her grandmother of African descent, a tailor, whom Ho says she 'probably drove mad'. Ho made patterns out of newspaper and by age 10 had a sewing machine at the end of the kitchen table 'that nobody was allowed to move,' which she used every day to make things for herself and four sisters. Ho attended Pennant Hills High School. She later trained in fashion design at

East Sydney Technical College The National Art School (NAS) is a tertiary level art school, located in , an inner-city suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The school is an independent accredited higher education provider offering specialised study in studio arts ...

, graduating in 1981 and spent a year working for three other companies, which she 'hated', before going out on her own.

Career

Like many of Australia's fashion designers, fresh out of college in 1982, Ho started her career at the Paddington markets for only 6 weeks with her designs that quickly brought her retail and media attention and began the Lisa Ho brand. The Lisa Ho brand was one of the most recognized brands in Australia and had a strong celebrity following with the signature pieces being worn by

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and

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. Her international reputation was first recognized during the Sydney 2000 opening ceremony, which featured a special segment she designed celebrating her role in Australian fashion. She was also asked to design the gown worn by Newton-John for her performance to welcome the Olympic athletes. Ho's businesses employed 80 staff (excluding out-workers) across 12 signature stores and head office. Her label was also stocked in David Jones stores and available worldwide via her online store.

Business closure

On 8 May 2013, Lisa Ho Designs and Lisa Ho Retail were placed into administration. This came just months after the company announced plans to list on the

Australian Securities Exchange Australian Securities Exchange Ltd or ASX, is an Australian public company that operates Australia's primary securities exchange, the Australian Securities Exchange (sometimes referred to outside of Australia as, or confused within Australia as ...

. On 18 June 2013, the administrators announced the closure of Lisa Ho Group, including all Lisa Ho stores across Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane. The company reportedly was $12 million in debt and failed to attract buyers after going into administration.Lisa Ho to close its doors forever
Australian Associated Press via

Yahoo!7 Yahoo! Australia (formerly Yahoo7 between 2006 and 2018) is the Australian subsidiary of global internet company Yahoo! Originally a 50/50 joint venture between Yahoo! and Seven West Media, it has been a 100% subsidiary of Verizon Media since ...

, 18 June 2013. Retrieved 18 June 2013

Personal life

Ho is engaged to Nick Jacenko. Ho was one of the victims of serial conman Hamish McLaren (ultimately losing her companies and $350,000 personally) who she met in 2011. She was interviewed during the award-winning 2019 podcast based on his crimes, '' Who the Hell Is Hamish?.''

References

External links

* 1963 births Living people Australian people of Chinese descent Australian people of German descent People from Albury, New South Wales Australian fashion designers Australian women fashion designers Australian women company founders Australian company founders National Art School alumni {{fashion-bio-stub