Interview

 
The secret's been out about Longchamp for a while now.  The fine French bag maker was leading a dignified if sleepy existence when all of a sudden Kate Moss started showing up in the ad campaigns about four years ago. Mini collections by American designer Jeremy Scott among others turned the Longchamp classic "Le Pliage" foldaway into a modern hit desired by all.  Last night, Moss, Longchamp and about 700 friends celebrated the launch of Kate Moss for Longchamp, a new brand designed by Moss for the house, at the Ritz Club in Paris. As the ad campaign's making-of film played on a large screen, featuring Moss in the back of a Rolls topless and photographed by David Sims in front of a chateau with one of the Longchamp bags she designed, a gaggle of professional Parisian party people in black tie sipped champagne with french fries while Moss hung out with her pal former Yves Saint Laurent muse Loulou de la Falaise in a cordoned off alcove. The Ritz's downstairs club bar was embellished with a zebra head trophy and complete stuffed zebra, the black and white stripes being a theme for the new Moss collection.  A performance by the Queens of Noize capped the evening, but my favorite was seeing France's Helmut Fritz, aka Eric Gref, whose number one hit "Ca m'énerve," ("It Bothers Me") is a delicious, long suffering lament on the futility of Paris party life—from trying to get a table at Hotel Costes without a reservation, to the sales girls at Weston and over and over again "those girls with Kate Moss bangs!"