PARIS — If you follow the top fashion editors on Instagram, it’s likely that your feed has been inundated over the last week with the same runway shots, pictures of Rihanna, Parisian cityscape, and, bizarrely enough, baked potatoes on a plate. Although it’s not much to look at, the dish — which is served at Russian restaurant and Fashion Week institution Caviar Kaspia — has become the most photographed and talked-about thing on and off the schedule. (Yesterday, I was seated behind Jessica Alba and crew at the Kenzo show, and I can report that the potato alone got five-minutes of airtime.)
Which is possibly why online-shopping platform Motilo asked Julia Restoin Roitfeld to host a dinner at Caviar Kaspia on Friday night: Everyone was inevitably going to head there anyway. Eighty lucky guests — including Carine Roitfeld, Givenchy favorite Kendall Jenner, and Arizona Muse — sipped on ice-cold straight vodka and ate salmon blinis with the infamous potato, which tastes like heaven with all the trimmings — and caviar, naturally.
On Saturday night, the revelry continued — this time for the launch of Porter Magazine. The e-retailer has hosted events in each major city during fashion month, but this was by far the grandest: a lavish house party held at the magnificent Hôtel Salomon de Rothschild. Guests were greeted by two enormous but sleepy Irish wolfhounds lying in the entrance hall, and each salon inside was fitted out to resemble the rooms of a stately home. There was a lounge room of sorts, with sofas and backgammon, an enormous banquet room with a spread that went on forever, and a ballroom in which guests, including Rihanna and Kristin Scott Thomas, kicked up their heels until the early hours.
Dancing was also the main agenda at the Kenzo after party last night, which took place at the iconic Parisian nightclub The Rex. Guests warmed up to ‘90s club music until Brit-pop sensation Katy B came on at 1 a.m. and things got seriously fun. Kenzo regulars Jessica Alba, Leigh Lezark, and Mademoiselle Yulia danced alongside Humberto Leon, who seemed thrilled with the response to his show earlier that day. (Leon and his business partner, Carol Lim, collaborated with David Lynch on the set and music for their fall/winter 2014 presentation.) Lynch wasn’t in town — but next time he is, he should definitely try that potato.