Rabosi Design | Linen, Cotton & Hemp Fashion | Lohi Linen
Meet the maker — Central Otago, under our roof
Rabosi Design: timeless, with a hint of fun.
Lohi isn’t only linen, and it isn’t only us. We share our Ranfurly home with a handful of Otago makers we believe in — and the one that brings colour to the room is Rabosi Design. Eva Hosie’s linen, cotton and hemp pieces are everything ours are, with the volume turned up on joy: vibrant prints, hand-embroidered detail, and a sense of play that women of every age seem to find their own.
Rabosi Design — natural fibres, vibrant colour, made in East Otago.
Designed where the views do the inspiring.
Eva Hosie has designed and made Rabosi Design since 2007, working from her home studio on a lifestyle block at Dunback, in East Otago — a place with the kind of views that explain the colour in her work. She draws on the South Island landscape and a lifelong love of vibrant colour, working only in natural fibres: linen and cotton, sourced mostly from Japan and Europe, with hemp a recent addition.
Each piece is a short run, often a print of her own, finished with unique embroidery and appliqué. Skirts, pants, pinafores, tunics, dresses — timeless, well-made things designed to be dressed up or down and worn through all four seasons, becoming the wardrobe favourite you reach for year after year.
“Beautifully crafted, stylish women’s fashion — with a hint of fun.”
Thirty years, two open doors.
This one’s a Ranfurly story. Long ago and a world away, our paths first crossed — old friends, and then, as life does, decades and an ocean apart. We didn’t see each other again until the day Eva and her husband happened to be passing through Ranfurly while we were mid-renovation on what is now Lohi, with the doors open to the street.
A chance look inside, a conversation, a recognition — and a friendship picked up thirty years after it began. The business arrangement came later, but the truth is Rabosi is here because of an open door and a small-town coincidence. We rather like that it started that way.
Why it sits beside the linen.
Rabosi and Lohi share a fibre and a philosophy — natural linen, cotton and hemp, short runs, slow fashion, made by hand in Otago by someone who lives down the road. Where we tend toward the quiet and natural-toned, Eva brings the print, the colour and the fun. Together they give our visitors the full range: the understated and the joyful, side by side, both made properly and made nearby.
- Fibres: natural linen, cotton and hemp
- Made by: Eva Hosie, designing Rabosi since 2007
- Studio: a lifestyle block at Dunback, East Otago
- Signature: vibrant prints, hand embroidery and appliqué, short runs
- Found at: Lohi Linen, 8 Charlemont Street, Ranfurly
Worth the drive.
Rabosi has its own following — women who come to Ranfurly knowing exactly which rack they’re heading for. While you’re here, there’s the linen, the Eden Hore story, Eweburn Creek’s wool, and a glass of Central Otago wine at The Thirsty Moa next door. One small town, a surprising amount of made-here.
The Slow Post
One letter a month from Ranfurly — the makers, the landscape, the making. We’ll introduce you to the people behind every piece in the store.