by In the 1970s, the farmer and war veteran Eden Hore raised his neighbors’ eyebrows when he started collecting what he called “high and exotic fashion”. Shimmering sequins, delicate tulle and foamy chiffon were not what one had expected on a sheep and cattle farm.
“I’ve always been a little different. A bachelor with all these clothes,” said the late Hore, who, before his death in 1997, ran a sheep and cattle farm in central -Otago on New Zealand’s South Island.
It was a time when not even museums or art galleries in New Zealand built this type of collections. And yet, in 1975 a converted tractor scales on the rolling, chicken hills of the remote Māniatoto region from Central Otago became a temporary fashion museum that is recognized in Australasia as one of the most important collections of its kind. The life and fashion collection of Hores celebrates a new book and exhibition and also offers a snapshot from New Zealand in the 1970s and 80s.
Hores niece Jo Dowling, who helped at the farm during the school holidays in the 1990s, said he was a pioneer in many ways.
“He was the first to do many things in agriculture, such as the top dressing with an airplane, the catch of wild deer for his farm, his farm tours and then his collection of clothing,” says Dowling.
“He was his own unique person and some of his family could not believe that he collected clothes. It is not what a man normally does.”
A enigmatic man of contradictions who, equally conveniently, bear the usual agriculture of homemade wool jerseys, moleskins and gumbling boots.
In 1963 he was invited by his friend, the country singer John Grenell, to accompany him to moral support for the Miss New Zealand Festival, in which the shy Grenell was to appear. Hore found himself behind the stage at the show and was enchanted by the clothes and razzle.
History of clothes and honorary curators for the collection of clothes in the Tūhura Otago Museum, Jane Malthus, is a co-author of Central Otago Couture: The Eden Hore collection, which tells Hores remarkable story. Malthus, who has worked with the collection since the 1980s, recalls that he describes himself as a calm man who was driven by his own vision.
“He didn’t care what other people thought about him. He was ready to stand out in the crowd,” she says.
Claire Regnault, the senior curator in the New Zealand Museum Te Papa Tongarewa and co-author of the book, agrees. “He was confident enough to be out of the box and at a time when it wasn’t finished.”
Hores stock broker, Ren Lothian, once said: “This clothing thing … was not the normal for a high -spirited, not in the Mānaiatoto in those days.”
Hore was born in Naseby in Central Otago in 1919. Hore left the school at 13 and worked on farms until he was appointed in the Second World War.
Related: “Our people were so innovative”: Māori art, which was celebrated in Landmark Book
In 1947 he bought Glenshee-a-Ein 8,100 hectares of farm and his 4,000 sheep and homestead 8 km from Naseby. The chain smokerhore described itself as an introverted and was known for his hard drinking, which was probably due to the post-war trauma and the tragic death of his 13-year-old adoptive daughter. He was also a hard worker and once bragged that he drove a tractor for 22 hours.
As an innovative farmer and Stockman, Hore was the first to bring cattle to the mostly sheep in the 1970s. Malthus says Hore’s interest in textiles and fashion comes from his desire to learn more about what could become of agricultural products such as wool, beef skin and sheepskin.
A sheep leather trouser suit from the mid-1970s in pine green is a striking example of agricultural materials that have an inventive life.
When Hore died at the age of 78, he left his huge couture collection to his nephew. In 2013, the Central Otago District Council bought the collection of 226 clothing as well as accessories such as hats, shoes and costume jewelry for $ 40,000.
According to Regnault, Hore was put on by Bloils, sequins and Lurex, so that the collection distinguishes its own taste. But what combines the clothing is a focus on striking fabrics, textures, brave colors and exquisite details.
“You are very characteristic dresses. As soon as you see you, you can imagine a story, a imagination around you,” she says.
Hore had an enthusiastic eye for a good dress and the desire to give a splash of lavish color in an otherwise strict, huge dry landscape.
“If you think about Drab -Euseland at that time, he created this strange little oasis in the middle of nowhere. A magical world in which you have entered,” says Regnault.
With his philanthropic community spirit, Hore was a pioneer of rural tourism. When a railway line created a bypass that made the area a forgotten backlog, Eden wanted to attract tourism to the region. He also organized garden parties and fashion shows to collect donations for the charity plotet, churches and group groups. And he had other collections that he presented from taxididized animals, imported exotic animals and collectors -jim -jim -beam dancers.
“He was really a man before his time. He was a lot, ‘You do you and I will do myself,” says Regnault.
“Eden tried to create something magical in this country at the end of the world.”
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Central Otago Couture: The Eden Hore collection by Jane Malthus and Claire Regnault, photographs by Derek Henderson (Te Papa Press)
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Eden in Dunedin An exhibition that shows highlights from the Eden Hore collection Toitū Otago Siedlermuseum April 2nd
