The council has been offered the collection and will make a decision at its meeting in Alexandra today.
''The Eden Hore fashion collection is nationally significant and represents a unique slice of New Zealand's couture fashion which cannot be found anywhere else in the country,'' council community development manager, Rebecca McElrea said in a report to the council.
Mr Hore, a Naseby farmer, died in 1997 and bequeathed the garments to his nephew John Steele and Mr Steele's wife Margaret.
The Eden Hore Museum of Fashion was based at his property, Glenshee Park, near Naseby.
The Steeles live at Glenshee and look after the museum but have recently sold the property, because of ill health.
They plan to retire in Naseby and can no longer house and manage the collection.
''We're fervently hoping that the collection can be kept together and we'd love it to be on display in Naseby - that's our first wish,'' Mr Steele said this week .
It was a ''reluctant sale'' but the council would be the ideal custodian of the collection, he said.
''This is a historic collection, a snapshot of the fashion industry in the 1970s and there's all kinds of gowns here, including some of the [national fashion awards] Benson and Hedges winners from that time, '' Mr Steele said.
Mrs McElrea recommended the council buy the collection at an agreed price of $40,000.
''The story behind the collection is equally as important to the Maniototo region and Central Otago, as our unique identity is woven throughout the history of the collection.''
The collection included some of the garments worn by Miss New Zealand contestants and evening wear and award-winning outfits.
As well as being displayed at Glenshee, some of the gowns were ''taken on the road'' and exhibited in parades in other centres in New Zealand and in Australia during the 1970s and 1980s, mostly to raise funds for various charities, she said.
Gowns by designers such as Kevin Berkahn, Vinka Lucas and Colin Cole feature in the display.
''Today, the significance of this unique collection opens it up to the potential of being a successful tourism business opportunity for the region,'' Mrs McElrea said.
