Our Reading Group takes place on the third and fourth Thursday of the month. Thursday 27 March:
Central Otago Couture: The Eden Hore Collection, by Jane Malthus and Claire Regnault, photographs by Derek Henderson.
A fascinating record of high-end New Zealand fashion and an enigmatic collector. Claire Regnault will join us for Q&A.
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.
Copies of the book will be for sale at the Reading Group, with a generous discount available to attendees on the day.
Koha will be collected at the meeting. All proceeds go towards the purchase of acid free envelopes for document storage.
Please register for this group by booking your free ticket. We will meet by the blue couches by the display of the Treaty of Waitangi on level 4 at 1.50pm.