Toitū to celebrate Eden Hore fashion collection
Dunedin (Tuesday 18 March) – A passion for fashion that resulted in the largest private collection of 1970s haute couture in the southern hemisphere is about to be celebrated at Toitū Otago Settlers Museum.
Set to launch iD Fashion on 1 April, the Eden in Dunedin exhibition will feature highlights from the late Eden Hore’s comprehensive collection.
The exhibition, which will open to the public on 2 April, is being presented in collaboration with the Eden Hore Central Otago Trust. There will also be a “soft launch” of the exhibition from Saturday 22 March, aimed at encouraging Central Otago visitors over Otago Anniversary Weekend.
Eden Hore, who died at Ranfurly in 1997, aged 78, was described as “a big-picture bloke”. In the 1970s he developed his Naseby farm into a tourist attraction, converting a tractor shed into a showroom of spectacular New Zealand designer fashion spanning more than 270 items.
His comprehensive yet eclectic collection features gowns purchased in Europe, Australia and New Zealand, and examples from some of New Zealand's best-known fashion designers of the time.
The display at Toitu presents a selection of garments featuring NZ designers and spanning day to evening wear created from wool, skin, sequins, lurex and imported sheer fabrics.
The Eden in Dunedin exhibition is augmented by a book, Central Otago Couture: The Eden Hore Collection (Te Papa Press).
Curator Jane Malthus and co-author Claire Regnault, along with photographer Derek Henderson, will discuss the book as well as elements of the exhibition and Eden Hore’s wider collection, at a special event at Toitū on 2 April (from noon).
For more information about Eden in Dunedin: Highlights from the Eden Hore Central Otago Fashion Collection, visit: www.toituosm.com
