A FASCINATING RECORD OF HIGH-END NEW ZEALAND FASHION AND AN
ENIGMATIC COLLECTOR
In 1975, a makeshift museum opened on a farm in the tussocked hills of the Māniototo region of Central Otago. The main feature of this new attraction was the more than 220 high-end fashion garments on display. It has been called one of the most significant collections in Australasia. And it was housed in an old tractor shed. It had been amassed by J Eden Hore, a successful but quietly spoken high-country farmer – a man of many contrasts. He embodied and boldly defied the stereotype of the ‘Southern Man’, confidently forging his idiosyncratic path through life.
Central Otago Couture tells the compelling story of his string of eccentric and memorable obsessions, from Miss New Zealand shows to a menagerie of animals, at the centre of which was his collection of over 270 high-fashion garments. The collection’s continued existence, acquired by the Central Otago District Council, honours and recognises the skills of New Zealand creatives and designers of the 1970s and 1980s at their best and represents a unique slice of fashion not found anywhere else in the country. To this end, acclaimed fashion photographer Derek Henderson has captured these extraordinary garments in the empty majesty of the Central Otago landscapes that Eden Hore so loved, bringing these stories to life for a new generation.
CATEGORY: NON-FICTION, HISTORY,
ART
ISBN: 978-1-99-107205-4
THEMA: AFP, AGC, AKX, WCN, 1MBN
BISAC: PHO009000, PHO023040,
PHO011000, HIS004000, DES013000
PUBLISHER: Te Papa Press
PUBLISHED: March 2025
PAGE EXTENT: 336 pages
FORMAT: Hardback,
cloth with french-fold jacket
SIZE: 280 x 190 mm
RIGHTS: World
AUTHORS LIVE IN: Dunedin (JM),
Wellington (CR) and Sydney (DH)