‘Cattleman, Fashion Fancier’: Central Otago Couture, revised

Jessie Bray Sharpin discovers ‘a brilliant nugget of a book’ in Central Otago Couture: The Eden Hore Collection by Jane Malthus, Claire Regnault and Derek Henderson.

“In 2013, the Otago Central District Council made a highly uncommon purchase for a local government agency. They acquired a collection of over 270 high -fashioned clothes and their associated file.”

My father’s family side is all the residents of Otago do Sul and the central, and when I told him about this book, he reminded me that my aunt and uncle used to rent Eden Hore’s house in Glenshee. This brought a vague memories of having them imagining that they live among the glass exhibition boxes with tassels and sequins spread across a luxurious 70’s farm of the 70s; Exhibition costumes between the guard -roups of the room, next to a corridor cabinet, appearing in the lounge. I realize now that this strange dream came from being informed of something once about a costume collection and a Māniatoto farmer.

This kiwi par excellence connection seems appropriate to a story about an artist who ended up having an unmatched sewing collection. The small town of New Zealand; As everyone knows everyone, but also how people can surprise him completely.

A new book by Jane Malthus, Claire Regnault, and Derek Henderson, Central Otago Couture: The Eden Hore Collection, tells the story of Otago’s sheep and cattle farmers and their collection of more than 200 high -fashioned 1970s and 1980s, now owned by Central Otago Otago Trancil.

The text of the book is divided between a hore biography and the composition of the collection itself through chapters on fabrics and designers, the natural materials that inspired Hore with a direct link to its agricultural background and the competitive fashion design scenario that also influenced Hore collection, as the competition dress of the year. The shared experience of Malthus and Regnault provides the reader insights about Hore’s life, the background of his collection and crucially contextualizes the collection within an instant Fashion and Textile Industry of Aotearoa at the moment the Hore was acquiring clothes.

The bridge between the text and the physical collection is the photographs of Derek Henderson that make up more than half of the book: photo sessions that took place between 2019 and 2024 of the clothes worn in the impressive Otago central landscape.

Henderson’s photographs completely raise the viewer’s experience of the collection, allowing a unique and rare example of a textile heritage collection being used by live models. To say that the collection is brought to life by photographs is an euphemism; The photographs are pieces of art by themselves.

The book describes Eden Hore as a man of contrasts and this theme is reflected by the images. The amazing colors of the clothes stand out vividly against the huge extension of the country of Mātoto. Ngahuia Williams, Hannah Clarke and Alannah Kwant models are photographed in places like Poolburn Reservoir, Dansays Pass, Clyde and Lake Dunstan. The clothes are a shock for the landscape and somehow they fit so well that it is like seeing an animal in their natural habitat. The models are similar to the scenarios of another world of Blue Lake, St Bathanos and Bannockburn.

The photographs taken at Hayes Engineering in ōTurēhua are a nod for another family of inventive characters, leaving their mark in the tradition and central community of Otago: Ernest Hayes invented agricultural machines and his wife Hannah pedaled throughout the district that sold her. Your children also invented: their house is home to inventions as a bath very early and the first discharge bathroom in the maniatototo. Hayes reminds me of photographs of Hore’s house in Glenshee: A large lawn surrounded by strange ornamental sources in the midst of the paddocks and rolling the country of Mātoto.

I think of the pieces used in this infinite open air compared to the time on display in the converted tractor shed from Eden Hore in Glenshee – alongside his collection of jim beam decanters and taxidermous animals. These collections were part of Eden Hore’s desire to put Otago Central on the map and attract people to the region. Over the years, he organized garden parties on the lawn in Glenshee, where the models paraded on their clothes; He used the landing track on his farm for visits to flutu-in-out of names such as Pat Fairfax of the Coronation Street Fame; And he collected animals to a pet zoo. Among them were 15 miniature horses that Hore went to South Carolina to buy, creating a successful business and a dynasty of little horny boyfriends, one of whom Pippi appears at the 2024 photo shoot.

Hore really was a man of contrasts. Born in Naseby in 1919, he spent his childhood on his family farm, Ida Vale, attending school with his brothers in Kyeburn and eventually working as a grouping before driving ambulances in World War II. Returning to Māniatoto after the war, he bought Glenshee’s farm and the farm and married Norma Gaskin in 1947. Glenshee was a sheep farm that Hore added with beef cattle in the 1970s. He was a successful farmer before turning to more literate entrepreneurial activities, which led to the establishment of the Hore Eden collection.

After the divorce of Eden and Norma in the early 1960s, Eden Hore took over a housekeeper and “Land Girl”, Alma Mcelwain. Mcelwain, who had trained as a model at Dunedin’s Charm School, played a crucial role in Hore’s history, as many of her collection were bought for her. Hore was also involved with the Miss New Zealand competitions, which were administered by Joe Brown, another man of Mātoto. He became the driver of singer John Hore who performed at the Miss New Zealand shows across the country and was managed by Brown. The contest scene exposed Hore the highest fashion, encouraging his collection. In 1975, Hore had a personalized showroom for his collection of “High and Exotic Fashion” in Glenshee, which became known as the tractor shed. Throughout the 1970s, he provided a contrasting experience for Glenshee: High Country Farm and High Moday visitors. Perhaps the most appropriate descriptor is Hore’s: In 1977, he announced a show of his collection in Queenstown with the title “Cattleman Extraordinary and Fashion Fancier”.

For readers who already know the Hore collection, Central Otago Couture provides a deeper understanding of the place of the collection in Eden Hore’s life. For those who are in blind, the book is an impressive starting point. The book gives us a chance to see the garments of clothing through the eyes of an expert, with details like Beverley Horne’s host dress in 1971 being made of wool that she kicks gold with onion skins. I loved reading that Jo Dunlap, the designer behind ElectraA blue and silver polyester overalls of peacock and lurex cloak and combining cover was a fan of science fiction.

This is a brilliant nugget of a book: Bound in cloth the color of Otago Autumn and its golden tussing rolling landscape, the bright blue page brand the open sky. I pushed him into the hands of friends as treasures; I feel like I’m letting them go secret.

Central Central Couture: The Eden Hore Collection by Jane Malthus, Claire Regnault and Derek Henderson (US $ 70, Te Papa Press) is available for purchase of Unity Books.