Central Otago Couture: The Eden Hore Collection

Prepare to be dazzled by Central Otago Couture, the stunning book that takes you on an unforgettable journey through the heart of New Zealand’s high-end fashion scene.

By Jane Malthus and Claire Regnault, photographs by Derek Henderson

In 1975, a makeshift museum opened on a farm in the tussocked hills of the Māniatoto 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.