FLOWERS spring eternally in her fluoro-bright collections, but not everything is coming up roses for Lisa Ho. The fashion designer – a favourite on the Australian scene for 30 years – is appealing to Hollywood as thrifty customers hold back at home.
Kelly Osbourne and Black Eyed Peas singer Fergie have been snapped in Ho’s spectacular Flower Basket print, a key look from her current winter collection, while The Vampire Diaries starlet Nina Dobrev strolled out in another Lisa Ho winter masterpiece, the Geometric dress.
Jennifer Beals, who looks as she did 29 years ago in Flashdance, gave a charity do a blast in Ho’s fluorescent orange cape gown. Their cheery grins buoyed the creator’s spirits.
‘‘It is difficult for us; generally, everyone is affected,’’ says Ho, who recently launched her Spring/Summer 2012 collection at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in Sydney.
‘‘You have to be conscious about giving the best you can at a price point people can afford. A lot of our customers are more considered about their spending.’’
Her winter goods, now in stores, defy the doom with the irrepressible optimism of flowers – gerberas, sunflowers and blossoms as refracted by the Hubble space telescope or similar. Lest anyone be too alarmed, Ho adds reliable monochromes to the choice of separates, which recall the mid-1990s in their neat tailoring and slim lines.
‘‘Black, white and neutrals always sell well in Australia, but I notice we still sell a lot of colour, and the same type of products sell across the country,’’ she says. ‘‘Definitely not so much black is being sold.’’
Well, not if her bright pink trousers and jackets in French blue, aquamarine and emerald green have anything to do with it. Tiger and python patterns, art deco geometry and colour blocks such as the striking cream and orange mini-skirt also threaten to enliven the drab streets. ‘‘But the botanical prints are the strong point for me,’’ she says. ‘‘We have developed all our prints; they are all original.
“We work with different printmakers around the world, but mainly in London and Paris. I’m constantly buying prints and archiving them. I really liked the idea of mixing them with the tuxedo suiting.’’
When does she shake out the archive? ‘‘It is just instinctive,” she says. “My body clock is locked into what I need to do at the right time … I might find a beautiful art work and think: I’m going to do some projections and see if I come up with something. And there is also what the market dictates. You get a feeling, a certain item is selling well.’’
Ho’s spring/summer offerings abound in yellow, green and lilac, with the highlights a tight-waisted, full-skirted yellow evening gown, a silk maxi-dress in a marbled print and palm fronds wafting across floor-skimming skirts. Short, paparazzi-grabbing frocks are spliced with shards of printer’s colours – magenta, cobalt, yellow, black – and the latest florals include gigantic violas emerging from a spooky pond of black.
The designer has stayed on the bouncy beat despite her personal upheavals, which began three years ago when two fabric-importing companies owned by her husband, Philip Smouha, were placed into administration, owing St George Bank $26 million.
The couple sold a multi-million-dollar property portfolio, swapping their $17 million Sydney home for one that cost $4 million, and shed sculptures, antiques and jewellery owned by the two companies.
Ho’s business, Lisa Ho Designs, was not implicated and continues to trade, its mascot a tiny horse sculpture by Colombian artist Fernando Botero: ‘‘I usually keep it here at the office,’’ she says.
