Some of farmer Eden Hore’s collections, such as deer antlers, are predictable items for a high-country man to own, but it’s his collection of outstanding and dazzling New Zealand women’s fashion of the 1970s and 1980s that needs further investigation. This extract from new book Central Otago Couture: The Eden Hore Collection begins that quest.
In 2013, the Central Otago District Council made a highly unusual purchase for a local government body. They acquired a collection of over 270 high fashion garments and their associated archive.
The collection had been amassed by Eden Hore, a successful high-country farmer from the Māniatoto, who surprised not only his neighbours but the nation in the 1970s when he embarked on an unexpected foray into collecting what he called ‘high and exotic fashion’. As his stock agent, Ren Lothian, reminisced, ‘This frock thing... wasn’t the normal for a cocky in those days, not in the Māniatoto.’
Eden Hore was a man of many contrasts. He embodied and boldly defied the stereotype of the ‘Southern Man’, confidently forging his own idiosyncratic path through life. He was a community-minded loner, a quietly spoken showman, a seasoned traveller with a deep love of home, and an astute stockman with a sharp eye for a quality fabric and hand-embellished detail. His retirement plan involved establishing a multi-faceted attraction on his property, reflecting his many interests, to draw visitors to the region that he loved.
Today his collection is simply known as Eden Hore Central Otago.
This is its story.
In June 1977, Eden Hore advertised a show of his collection of outstanding fashion garments to be held in Queenstown, styling himself as ‘Cattleman Extraordinary [sic] and Fashion Fancier’. As self-promotion, he knew it was bound to catch people’s attention and sell tickets. These were contradictory descriptors, seldom if ever seen together. But they were true: he had become a highly successful cattle farmer and the owner of gorgeous contemporary gowns that he kept in a converted tractor shed on his farm.
He recognised and celebrated his differences from the stereotypical farmer, enjoying the contrasts that the many threads of his life presented. He could seem mercurial, enigmatic and unpredictable, yet had often thought deeply about things before acting, surprising others only because he hadn’t voiced those thoughts. His life seemed to take unexpected turns, but to Eden these changes in direction always had a purpose. He described himself as shy and introverted, yet delighted in creating opportunities for friends and family to get together.
His own dress sense reflected these differences and purposes. On the farm he dressed as most farmers did, in homespun wool jerseys or jackets for warmth and moleskins or wool trousers with boots, but later in life, when he was concentrating on his pet animal collection and his showroom, he wore white overalls and a cap so he could appear ‘reasonably respectable even if I am dirty’. As a showman up on the stage with his models he would wear a dark grey or white dinner jacket and black trousers, or a batik fabric sports coat he bought in Asia. He sported a range of colourful shirts, some floral or even leopard print, when out on the town or for evenings at the Danseys Pass Hotel, his local pub, eatery and sometime second home. On his farm in the winter he often wore an iconic 1970s Cowichan wrap cardigan.
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Eden Hore was a smart, ambitious, skilled and observant farmer. Born and raised in the Central Otago high country, he delighted in the beauty of the landscape, the majesty and grandeur of the tussock-covered country, and the secluded valley streams, which as a musterer, he knew well. Naseby, Kyeburn and Danseys Pass in the northern Māniatoto, 650 metres above sea level or ‘worry level’ as one roadside sign has it, surrounded by mountains, with gently undulating country split by creeks and rivers such as the Kye Burn and Hog Burn — these places were his homeland.
But there was more to Eden Hore than farming flair and love of the high country. He was ‘virtually alone among his fellow farmers in seeing the value of media and promotion and knowing how to use it’. Because the area became a backwater after the railway line bypassed it in the 1930s, Eden saw the economic need to increase tourism. His many entrepreneurial activities aimed to support the local community and attract people to the region. A smart businessman with an individual vision and a good eye for design, he became an innovative impresario, not that he used that term.
From farming and the Second World War to Miss New Zealand shows and miniature horses, one common thread throughout Eden’s life was a passion for collecting, and another, less obvious, theme was his philanthropic spirit. Some of his collections, such as deer antlers, are understandable items for a high-country man to own, but his collection of outstanding and dazzling New Zealand women’s fashion of the 1970s and 1980s needs investigating further, even though establishing a true account of its development is challenging because of the multiple stories that exist, and the lack of a paper trail.
Eden’s dress collection, now owned by the Central Otago District Council (CODC) and branded as Eden Hore Central Otago (EHCO), comprises 226 garments by 41 designers or manufacturers, and 49 accessories such as hats, shoes and costume jewellery.
The collection is personal and particular, driven by Eden’s interests in natural materials such as wool and skins and his love of glamour, but is by no means representative of the range of New Zealand fashion in the 1970s. It illustrates designer individuality and self-expression, and wearer exclusivity rather than run-of-the-mill fashion. But it also reveals New Zealand fashion design and material history: stories of a time when elegant evening wear was de rigueur and women wore hostess dresses to evening dinner parties; a time when hardly any tertiary fashion design courses were available so designers learnt on the job, giving a local flavour to their interpretations of overseas fashion.
A period of highly skilled spinners and weavers creating stunning cloths and clothes from New Zealand wool, and designers using the skins of animals that would otherwise be wasted to fashion dramatic outfits. New technological developments with synthetic fibres and fabrics provided colours, textures, and patterns never seen before.
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Advertise with NZME.In creating this collection, Eden was considered an oddity by more than just his local community, not that it seemed to bother him. No one else in New Zealand — not even museums — was collecting contemporary fashion, or handcrafted designs in natural materials. However, he proved to be an astute and visionary collector. He selected eye-catching and dramatic fashions in a variety of fabrics, favouring sheers, sequins and Lurex, and excellent craftsmanship.
Local and international tourists flocked to see them and his collections of birds and animals for a few years, although there are no firm statistics on exactly how many. He also ran a garment hire service, and toured shows to various centres, raising funds for charities.
Central Otago Couture - The Eden Hore Collection by Jane Malthus and Claire Regnault with photography by Derek Henderson, $70, published by Te Papa Press. Available March 13, 2025.
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