Copy of Our Story Lohi Linen — Ranfurly, Central Otago

It started with a shed full of dresses.

When Tania Murray Haigh was about eight years old, her parents would take her to visit a farmer at Naseby in the Maniototo. While her sister made straight for the miniature horses outside, Tania would disappear into something altogether different — a shed full of the most extraordinary fashion she had ever seen. Gowns, colour, texture, glamour. A sensory overload in the middle of the high country. She could spend hours in there.

The farmer was Eden Hore. And those visits were etched into her for life.

Lohi means slow.

It's a Hawaiian word, chosen by Tania's daughter Jaide, and it captures everything we believe about the way clothing should be made and worn. Slowly. Carefully. With intention. The opposite of fast fashion in every possible way.

Lohi Linen is the brand Tania and her husband Russ Haigh built from nothing — and we mean that literally. We converted a former drapery store on Ranfurly's main street with our own hands. We revealed the concrete floors, painted the walls, built the bar, put up the beams. The same hands that renovated this building cut and sew every piece of linen clothing in our collection.

It's not a job. It's a lifestyle.

100% linen. Made in Ranfurly.

Every garment in the Lohi collection is made by Tania in our Ranfurly studio using 100% pure linen. No synthetic blends, no shortcuts, no factory floors. Each piece is named after the landscapes around us — the Ranfurly top, the Naseby, the Hawkdun, the Mt Buster — because this place is woven into everything we make.

Linen is the original slow fabric. It breathes in the heat, softens with every wash, and grows more beautiful the more you wear it. It's been used for thousands of years for good reason. We're not reinventing anything — just doing it properly, in a small town in Central Otago, the way it deserves to be done.

The building across the road.

Tania never forgot Eden Hore. She followed his story throughout her life — through the years his collection sat in a shed at Glenshee, through the Central Otago District Council's purchase of the 276-piece collection in 2013, through the exhibitions and the book and the growing recognition of what this quiet, paradoxical Maniototo farmer had accumulated.

When the opportunity came to return to Ranfurly and open Lohi, Eden Hore was part of the reason she came back.

Today, two of his garments sit in specially designed display pods inside our store — part of a regional exhibition trail bringing his nationally significant collection of 1970s and 80s haute couture out of the museum and into the places he loved. And we have bought the building across the road with a vision to bring more of his story to life — a living visitor experience that honours Eden as a farmer first, and celebrates the remarkable thing he quietly built in the middle of the high country.

That story extends well beyond fashion. It reaches into history, culture, identity, and the kind of place the Maniototo is. We intend to do it justice.

The Thirsty Moa.

Because the best shopping always goes better with a good glass of wine, we built a bar inside Lohi. The Thirsty Moa is exactly what it sounds like — cool, relaxed, and poured with care. We serve local Wooing Tree wines, good coffee, and a carefully chosen bar list that celebrates what Central Otago does better than almost anywhere on earth.

We built it ourselves. Naturally.

Pull up a stool. The window seat catches the evening sun perfectly.

Giving back to the next generation.

Slow fashion isn't just about what you wear. It's about what you teach.

We open Lohi's doors to local schools for fashion shows and sustainability workshops — because we believe the next generation deserves to understand where clothing comes from, what it costs the planet, and what's possible when you make something by hand from materials that already exist.

Students design their own pieces in small groups, working with recycled materials sourced from the local op shop. Tania brings those designs to life and the students model them in a fashion show in front of their families and community. It raises funds for local schools and it plants seeds that last a lifetime.

Matariki. July 2026.

Every July we host our Matariki fashion show — a two-night celebration of design, community, and slow fashion in the heart of the Maniototo. Designers from across the region come together for an event that is equal parts runway, fundraiser, and community gathering.

This year we're proud to welcome Jaide and Mateo — both alumni of Love Island New Zealand — to Ranfurly for the event. Two nights, twenty designers, a meet and greet evening at the Thirsty Moa, and more content than we know what to do with.

If you've never been to Ranfurly, this is the year to come.