Motorsport treasures and high fashion garments may seem an unusual combination but it could be a perfect fit.
So say staff at the Highlands Motorsport Park at Cromwell, which has offered to host the Central Otago District Council's recently purchased Eden Hore collection of high fashion garments and accessories.
Central Otago Mayor Tony Lepper, who recently fielded calls from the public wanting to know when the $40,000 acquisition would be displayed, says the suggestion has merit.
''Although the deed which accompanied the sale said the collection should be permanently displayed in the Maniototo, I see no reason why, in the short term, part of the collection couldn't be exhibited in various places.
''We've been talking to the Highlands team who are keen to host the collection, or part of it.''
Council community services manager Anne Pullar recently told the Teviot Valley Community Board it could be up to two years before a permanent venue was found for the collection and between 18 months and two years to prepare a collection management plan.
It was important to ''relaunch'' the amazing and nationally significant collection of garments and accessories from the 1970s to the 1990s properly, she said.
Mr Lepper said council staff now believed the management plan could be completed much quicker than that, so the collection could be displayed sooner.
''It should be, as well. There's a lot of interest in it at the moment, so if we kept it stored away, it would lose impetus.''
Mr Hore, a Naseby farmer, displayed the collection in the Eden Hore Museum of Fashion on his Naseby property.
He died in 1997 and bequeathed the garments to his nephew John Steele and Mr Steele's wife Margaret, who were on the farm.
The couple recently sold the farm, and sold the collection of more than 220 outfits to the council.
Highlands Motorsport Park business development manager Josie Spillane said the Highlands museum would be a great place to display the whole collection or part of it.
''The park is more than a motorsport venue. It's a community asset, and we think the display would fit very well with the exhibits we have in the museum.
"It's an amazing collection and our venue has climate control and security - everything needed to protect the garments. You couldn't get a safer environment.''
Some of the outfits were Benson and Hedges fashion award winners and Benson and Hedges had also been a major motorsport sponsor.
''Our museum celebrates prominent Kiwis and this collection would do the same,'' Mrs Spillane said.
''Tens of thousands of people have already been through the museum since we opened [at Easter] so it would be assured of a wide audience,'' she said.
