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.