Miranda Kerr brings famous smile to Honolulu

Nadine Kam photos
Australian supermodel Miranda Kerr and Exile’s Takahiro were in town to film an ad campaign for Samantha Thavasa and stopped by the store for photos.

The Japan-based handbag, clothing and lifestyle brand Samantha Thavasa hosted a private reception to welcome Australian supermodel Miranda Kerr and singer/actor Takahiro of the Japanese rock group Exile on Oct. 16.

The press was invited to a photo session outside the Ala Moana Center mall level store, before heading to Mariposa at Neiman Marcus, where Kerr and Takahiro helped picked the winners of prize giveaways. To mark the occasion, the Samantha KINGZ line currently available only in Japan, is being offered at the Honolulu store for a limited time.

Although the event was something of a secret, word got out to Japanese travelers and there was a mob scene at outside the Samantha Thavasa store, so I had to push through the crowd to get to the entrance, then get pulled through when I couldn’t go any further.

The Samantha Thavasa boutique opened here in April, and the two celebs were in town filming a new advertising campaign for Samantha KINGZ.

They also helped with a prize giveaway at Mariposa restaurant at Neiman Marcus.


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Samantha Thavasa has a long history of using Western celebrities to promote its handbags. Among them, Beyoncé, the Hilton sisters, Victoria Beckham and Jennifer Lopez.

Kerr, who first rose to fame as a Victoria’s Secret model has become the go-to model for several brands, and anyone who’s trekked through Waikiki this year would have seen her likeness plastered in the windows of H&M and Swarovski. Forbes magazine ranks her in its Top 7 list of the world’s highest-paid models. Her estimated annual earnings is $7 million, tying her with Kate Moss, Kate Upton and and China’s Liu Wen.

Above them, earning $8 million, are Doutzen Kroes and Adriana Lima, but they’ve all got a long way to go to catch up to the front runner, Gisele Bundchen, whose haul is $47 million annually.

And Takahiro is no stranger to fashion branding. He’s also a brand ambassador for 24 Karats Surf, at 280 Beachwalk, which specializes in casual, vintage-inspired Americana lifestyle clothing.

Fashion illustration with Louda Larrain

Nadine Kam photos
This is one of my illustrations, resulting from Louda Larrain’s fashion illustration workshop at Fishcake.

Beyond the runways, some of the best things about Hawai'i Fashion Month are the opportunities to network and learn something new.

I had such a pleasure meeting couture textile artist Louda Larrain, who spent most of her career in Paris and New York, making it unlikely our paths would have ever crossed if not for her move to Kauai with her renowned photographer husband Gilles Larrain.

She generously shared her talent Sunday at Fishcake Gallery with a class of about 30 people who were interested in learning the art of fashion illustration. As an artist, she looks at drawing as a skill equal to writing and feels it is a shame that so few people work on developing this skill. She sees it as a kind of illiteracy.

Carrie Shuler modeled all of Louda Larrain’s one-of-a-kind creations for the day, including this hoop-skirt design my top illustration was based on.

I stopped drawing in college, so suffer from arrested development in that area. But it’s definitely something I would love to work on more in the future. I would love to one day go to New York fashion week and draw everything I see. But, as Louda said, anyone can draw, but to develop style is difficult.

At any rate, the workshop was both fun … and challenging. It started easy enough with sketching a retro bikini on a live model. But Louda soon added her designs and textiles to the mix with their nubby and wispy textures, sheers and solids, sparkles and patterns, all quite difficult for a beginner to render.

I started out so energized, but eight drawings later, I was pretty wiped out, but inspired to do more and work at improving my line.

Before he died, my late husband, who loved the arts, left his box of art supplies next to my chair in the living room and I have been staring at it for a year-and-a-half, trying to figure out what he was thinking. Did he have one last project in mind? It was the only thing he took out of his room. Maybe he wanted to encourage me to draw more. I used his pencils that day. He continues to guide me.

The class started with Louda’s slide presentation on fashion illustration through history, including this work by Christian Lacroix, among the couture designers she produced textiles for.

Louda Larrain addresses the class before we start simply, capturing the lines of the body and a simple bikini.

Carrie ran through three poses.

Louda’s professional work is at top left; my try is at bottom right. I have a pretty heavy hand and for most of the illustrations, had to stop three times to sharpen my pencil.

More poses and illustrations:

My attempt at getting the textures of Louda’s textile.

Louda’s illustration.

Teacher’s hand at left, mine on the right.

'Project Runway' judges push Zamora to point of tears

Lifetime photos
Kini Zamora is advised to change up the styling on his finale collection.

'Project Runway' Season 13
Episode 13: Finale Part 1

This week, the final four designers—Char Glover, Sean Kelly, Amanda Valentine and Hawaii’s Kini Zamora—were told they have $9,000 to spend and five weeks to create a 10-piece collection for New York Fashion Week, which in reality took place Sept. 5.

Co-hosts Tim Gunn and Heidi Klum announced that they will be setting them up for success on the global stage by giving them some inspiration, and with the help of the Best Western hotel chain, the designers—none of them well-traveled—are sent jetting off to Rome.

Duly inspired, the designers retreated to their homes to create before Tim arrives for his critique. During Tim’s home visit with Kini, he marvels over the quality of Kini’s designs. Kini said his collection was slow coming. I think with all the pressure over Fashion Week, he was probably overthinking it, which tends to stifle creativity.

Gunn finally had the opportunity to meet Kini’s family, and he and his mother Valerie explained that he was destined to make his family proud. Valerie said, “That’s how he got his name.” His full Hawaiian name, Kini’okahokuloa, means “king of the morning star.”

Then Tim is in for a treat, with a full luau with music, hula and food, in the family’s back yard. It isn’t over before the usual starchy Tim performs a series of ‘ami, or hip rotations. Lol! Combined with his adventures with Ari (then Andy) South, he’s becoming well versed in living local!

After Gunn completed all his home visits, it was time for the designers to return to New York. As soon as they saw each other, they were eager to see all collections and they are as different as the personalities involved.

Eventually, Tim arrived to report that the judges want to get a preview of three looks from their collections right away. In the past, this has meant that the low-scoring designer would be eliminated … but not this time. Before starting the runway show, Klum tells the designers that the critiques will help them present their final show.

There’s much praise for Sean and Amanda’s collections. Char’s is the weakest. But I was shocked when the judges save their worst criticism for Kini’s collection. I thought they were well-suited to high-end designer stores like Bergdorf Goodman, Sak’s and Neiman Marcus. But, I guess the bulk of the population does not shop high-end designer, and they are seeking wider appeal for populist relevance. The judges deemed the styling “old lady” and advised him to change the styling and some of the pieces.

Given the time crunch and the feeling of overwhelm of making changes this late in the game, Kini was reduced to tears.

But I have the feeling it was a bit of a subterfuge for storyline, because his collection was strong, and can only get stronger with a few tweaks, including losing the "all bells and whistles" coat as the judges suggested.

I really liked Sean’s pieces. He is the most cerebral of the designers, the sort who appeals to smart women, the handful of man repellers out there. His collection tells the story of the fall of Caesar, from godlike white to darkness of betrayal to his bloody death by the hands of his peers.

Amanda’s pieces were lauded as looks most women want to wear. That may be so, because they’re easy pieces, but they are way too “ethnic” for my taste. The best aspect of her collection is the custom jewelry she created.

Char may have cohesion in her final collection, but it wasn't apparent in what she chose to show. There was no cohesion at all.

'Project Runway': Kini Zamora scores another win with soccer ball dress

Lifetime photos
Kini Zamora was teamed with Amanda Valentine in this week’s challenge.

‘Project Runway’ Season 13
Episode 11: The Highest Bidder

This week the designers were led to a Navy Yard where they are paired up as teams, each with $500 to bid on storage containers of random merchandise, which seems to indicate they are real storage lockers being auctioned off.

Some are packed with stuff. Others look near empty. This is a team challenge and the other designers want to be paired with Hawaii designer Kini Zamora because of his speed. He’s teamed with wacky Amanda Valentine and their easy-going natures seem compatible. Her rationale for bidding on one container was because it contained a colorful Yeti painting and he was willing to go with the flow and have fun. I don’t necessarily like her aesthetic, but as time goes on I like her more and more as a person.

Their locker is otherwise filled with children toys, and they say it’s as if someone threw a party and stuck everything in storage afterward. It turns out to be their only win and it dawns on them that they now have no fabric to work with. They must make their own fabric with objects such as the canvas Yeti painting, soccer balls and plastic pool toys. They are simultaneously nervous and relieved when mentor Tim Gunn introduces a twist to the challenge, which is coming up with a third design of fabric, which they can shop for at Mood.

Zamora starts making a skirt with the soccer ball fabric and he and Amanda are happy with themselves, but during critique, mentor Tim Gunn fears they are dressing a teen-age hooker. So they rethink their designs and Zamora turns his skirt into a mini dress

Kini’s soccer ball dress scored him another win.

The judges, including “Project Runway’s” biggest star, Christian Siriano, love their inventiveness and sense of color and play. The soccer ball dress gives Zamora another win.

Both the other teams have problems, but Korina Emmerich and Char Glover, from two different teams, find themselves on the bottom for looks judges deem “too old” and “too hoochie,” respectively, and face a second challenge. They are given an hour to complete another dress.

Emmerich can’t get over her resentment that Gunn had saved Glover before, and never believed she belonged in the competition. Instead of focusing on her work, she focused on her anger and resentment. Her teammate, Emily Payne was allowed to help her, but Emily says Korina’s comments and “bad energy” make her “not want to help her.”

Emmerich believes she is the better designer and anything she puts on the runway will be better than Glover, but her negative attitude does flow into her work and when Glover’s smart choices end up in a pretty jersey dress with chiffon cape by her teammate Sean Kelly, she’s saved and Korina goes home.

Judges felt Korina Emmerich fell back on Southwest style too many times.

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Nadine Kam is Style Editor and staff restaurant critic at the Honolulu Star-Advertiser; her coverage in print on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Contact her via email at nkam@staradvertiser.com and follow her on Twitter, Instagram and Rebel Mouse.

Espoir introduces itodatsumou practice of facial threading

Nadine Kam photos
At the newly open Espoir salon in Kaimuki, Emiko Singh offers an itodatsumou, or threading, treatment to remove facial hair.

Threading originated in India and started gaining popularity in the West about a decade ago, primarily for shaping eyebrows.

In Japan, the procedure evolved as a technique for removing all facial hair. Itodatsumou, literally “thread hair removal,” is now one of the services offered at the newly open Espoir salon in Kaimuki.

As the name implies, thread is used in the process, rolled and twisted over unwanted hair to pluck them at the root, a process that is said to stimulate capillaries, which in turn gets the blood flowing and promotes the production of collagen and elastin to help firm and tone skin.

The hair removal also helps to remove dead skin cells on the stratum corneum, the outermost skin layer.

During a grand opening celebration and demonstration that took place Sept. 23, salon owner Emiko Singh showed how it’s done, starting with the application of a powder of hyaluronic acid, collagen and clay to reveal fine hairs.

After the hair removal, she finished with a cleansing and skin-tightening pepperment mask treatment. The basic treatment is $100 for 65 minutes. Maintenance treatments are $70 for 45 minutes.

Singh, who is on a mission to provide women with the hope of maintaining their skin well into their senior years, named her salon with the French word for “hope.” She also offers relaxing European facials and korugi, a bone massage technique from Korea to reduce face size.

Salon owner Emiko Singh measures out lengths of fine threads in preparation for the hair removal process.

Twisting the string and intertwining hair removes both hair and dead skin cells on the surface of the skin, and is said to stimulate the hair bulb, activating capillaries to promote collagen and elastin production necessary for youthful-looking skin.

There was a rush to feel model Kae’s smooth skin after the demonstration.

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Espoir is at 3632 Waialae Ave., Suite 201, across from Goodwill. Call (808) 202-3443. The salon is open from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. daily by appointment only.

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Nadine Kam is Style Editor and staff restaurant critic at the Honolulu Star-Advertiser; her coverage in print on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Contact her via email at nkam@staradvertiser.com and follow her on Twitter, Instagram and Rebel Mouse.