While other children received a box of Harry Potter Lego for Christmas, Lisa Ho's son would find a goat's head under the tree. Tex also has a rare English otter, frog skeletons and a dinosaur egg. Not to mention his recent 13th birthday present - a squirrel that had lived on the White House lawns.
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Yes, skeletons are just some of the things in the closet of the esteemed fashion designer Lisa Ho, who has been collecting fashion, taxidermy, antiques and artworks for more than 30 years. But now she is shedding some layers. Five garages' worth, actually. Her entire private collection is going under the hammer through Mossgreen Auctions at Fox Studios' Byron Kennedy Hall on August 19.
''He wanted me to buy him a human skeleton - I drew the line at that,'' Ho said while giving The Sun-Herald a sneak peak into the collection that has furnished her homes in Bellevue Hill and the southern highlands. ''They are available and they're expensive, like $40,000.''
Her treasures include vintage fashions from YSL, Chloe, Dior and Halston, antique lounges worth $65,000 and artworks, such as the Andy Warhol screen print of Coco Chanel. ''I'm not sad at all,'' Ho says. ''The volume is too much for me now. It comes with a lot of responsibility owning an archive like this because you have to take such good care of it.''
Ho supported her husband, the rag trader Philip Smouha, in 2009 when his fashion empire collapsed owing $26 million. Four Picassos and a Norman Lindsay went under the hammer at the time.
There have been reports the couple have split in recent months.
''I won't speak about my private life,'' she said, saying it's not the dollars driving the auction. ''Over the years I haven't become attached to things, so it's easier to part with them. When I was younger I was so wanting to hang onto it - the older I get the less attached I am. You shed.''
