Central Otago Couture

In 1975, a makeshift museum opened on a farm in the tussocked hills of the Maniatoto 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 of its kind 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 own 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 very best, and represents a unique slice of couture 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.

Jane Malthus is a dress historian and honorarycurator for the dress collection at Tuhura Otago Museum, and has an academicbackground in textiles, clothing and fashion, history and fine arts. Herresearch explores historical, social and cultural intersections andimplications of dress and textiles used by nineteenth- and twentieth-centuryNew Zealanders. Involved with Eden Hore's collection since the 1980s, she is acurrent patron and steering group member for Eden Hore Central Otago and afounding member of Costume & Textiles Aotearoa New Zealand.

Claire Regnault is Senior Curator New ZealandHistories & Cultures at Te Papa. She is particularly interested in NewZealand's dress histories, and associated industries including fashionphotography, textile design, retail and promotion. She is the author of Dressed:Fashionable Dress in Aotearoa New Zealand from 1840 to 1910 (2021), winnerof the 2022 Ockham New Zealand Book Award for Illustrated Non-Fiction; NewZealand Gown of the Year (2003); and co-author of The Dress Circle: NewZealand Fashion Design Since 1940 (2010). She is the President of Costume& Textiles Aotearoa New Zealand, and a member of the Eden Hore CentralOtago steering committee.

Derek Henderson is one of New Zealand's most prolificphotographers, with a wide-ranging portfolio that spans various genres; fromarchitecture, fashion, interiors, landscape and portraiture. Derek hasexhibited at fine art galleries throughout Australasia, with some of hisphotographs in permanent collections, namely the National Gallery of Victoria,Christchurch City Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu and the Arts House Trust artCollection.

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