Book Extract: Central Otago Couture: The Eden Hore Collection

Sunday, 6 April 2025

Eden Hore was a Central Otago farmer. He was also an avid collector of high fashion, and regularly hosted fashion shows to display his collection. His story is captured in a new book, Central Otago Couture: The Eden Hore Collection by Claire Regnault and Jane Malthus with photographs by Derek Henderson, published by Te Papa Press. In this extract, they describe how garden parties, fundraisers and catwalks in Glenshee became the rather unlikely staging points for a growing collection of high fashion garments. The book is out now, RRP $70.

Also online at the Sunday Star-Times: read a Q&A with co-author Jane Malthus.

Do you want to win a copy of Central Otago Couture: The Eden Hore Collection? Enter at thepost.co.nz/books. Entries close Wednesday, April 9 at 4pm.

In the late 1960s Eden began putting the insights he had gained from attending fashion parades and working at the Miss New Zealand pageant to good use, hosting events for the local community and establishing his property as a visitor destination. He recalled, ‘[Alma] taught me the basics of fashion, and I became fashion-conscious myself, so I started collecting the gowns as a hobby. The idea originated simply as a sideline to show visitors, but it . . . snowballed . . .’

Images of a mock Miss New Zealand show at Glenshee appear in Alma’s documents, as do notices of fundraising events held in the garden. On 8 February 1970, before establishing his own collection, Eden held a ‘Monster Garden Fete’ in aid of the Maniototo Anglican Church. The fete was opened by Anglican Bishop Walter Robinson of Dunedin, Vanity Walk models paraded in all-wool garments, Acme Tailors of Dunedin showcased the latest menswear, fashion designer Kevin Berkahn was present, the Blair Athol Midgets marching team performed, and John Hore sang. Added attractions included mini-golf, chain stepping, weight-guessing, pony and horse rides, and hot dogs, soft drinks, ice creams and sweets were available for children and teenagers. A similar event in November 1970 raised $320 (equivalent to $6380 today) for the Mount Ida Presbyterian church and Waipiata–Patearoa Parish.

For other public garden parties or events, Eden’s association with the entertainment world of Joe Brown enabled him to host television and concert performer Howard Morrison and country singer Eddie Low, who flew in to the airstrip on the flat land below his house to perform. Alma remembered Howard Morrison coming in 1969 when he was part of the Miss New Zealand touring show and driving around in Eden’s Daimler.

The garden parties were often fundraisers for local churches or charities. People brought their picnics, rugs and chairs, sun-hats and children, and arranged themselves round the perimeter of the lawn. The models, who included Alma while she was living at Glenshee, were locals supplemented by young women from Dunedin’s Vanity Walk Modelling School, who would appear from the house or, later, the Tractor Shed showroom and walk around the terrace and lawn showing off the gowns. Women inspired by the fashion could go home with their own glamorous gown, since Eden also offered gowns for purchase, in collaboration with Alexandra designer Pat Hewitt. Hewitt was less well known than the North Island designers Eden collected, but is well represented in the EHCO collection because she could work with Eden’s ideas and fabrics, enabling him to realise his own design aspirations.

Eden purchased fabrics when travelling then got them made up by several designers. In one interview he said, ‘I look for the line in a fabric and leave the style to the designer’.

Eden and Alma also entertained in other ways, holding parties and movie nights in the 1960s and 1970s. Eden purchased a 16mm film projector and screen after the Naseby picture theatre closed and screened movies, especially comedies, on Saturday nights in his big lounge, inviting family from the district, other locals and any visitors. Alma catered for these and other parties, which nieces and nephews remember as fun events. Eden also liked playing country music records by Jim Reeves, Roy Orbison and others. He would turn up the volume while shearers had their lunch, although we don’t know how this was received by them!

The couple travelled occasionally, but only went overseas together once, taking a farming tour to Canada in 1970 or 1971, which included the world-famous Calgary Stampede, a rodeo festival. It was possibly the only time Alma had a holiday during these years.

Although passionate about Central Otago, Eden remained curious about the world following his experiences in the war. During winters, when there was less to do on the farm, he often travelled overseas with a group tour, such as the one in August 1971, themed around movies and television shows, and guided by New Zealand radio and television personality Selwyn Toogood. In the United States the group of fifty-six went to Universal Studios, Disneyland and Las Vegas, and watched the Dean Martin Show being recorded. In the United Kingdom they visited Granada Studios to watch the filming of the popular working-class soap opera Coronation Street and chat with the cast. A highlight for Eden was meeting actress Pat Phoenix at her village pub, The Navigation Inn, in Buxworth. Phoenix played Elsie Tanner on the show and at the time was ‘the sexiest thing on television’. The group then toured Europe for ten days before coming home.

Alma lived and worked at Glenshee for twelve years, and although she loved the place, and Eden too, she left in 1972 to housekeep for Viv Anngow, whose wife, Ivy, had died suddenly in August 1970, leaving two children. As Eden put it in a letter in 1979, ‘she ran off with my best friend’. Alma took the clothes she was given by Eden (thousands of dollars’ worth according to the same letter). She clearly valued them, as she still had them when she died in 2022.

She had worked long days, learnt a lot from and seen the best and worst of Eden. ‘[S]he went through some bad times with him . . . and you know, his drinking was caused [by] the war,’ Eden’s sister Jo recollected. Like many other returned soldiers, ‘When he came home from the war he was in a pretty bad way. He struggled for years, but he did get on top of it’, his nephew John Steele recalled. Tellingly, in 1965 Miss Otago Sue Cameron wrote on her page in the Miss New Zealand programme, ‘Dear Eden, I will miss you a lot. Don’t forget to keep off the whiskey.’ The following year he tried to give up drinking, including going to Queen Mary Hospital (which specialised in alcohol addiction) in Hanmer Springs in an attempt to get sober. There were times when Alma had to go out in the night to find him when he didn’t come home from the Danseys Pass Hotel. Once he was found under a bridge with a loyal dog keeping watch over him. Alma put his drinking down to his memories of the war and sadness over the loss of his marriage and daughter.

Despite Alma’s sudden departure, Eden continued to pursue his interest in fashion. During the early 1970s his collecting took on a focused purpose, as he began to formulate an idea for making what had begun as something to entertain visitors into a fully fledged tourist attraction — a fashion museum. Nothing like it existed in New Zealand yet, as most museums were collecting older dress with social history value, rather than contemporary fashion.

A selection of Derek Henderson’s photos from the book will be on exhibition at Melanie Roger Gallery, 444 Karangapape Road from April 9–17.