First theory of parties: The size of the venue is inversely proportional to the quality of the event. That seemed to be the case last night at the tiny design shop Maison Darré, which hosted a cocktail party to celebrate the store's newest series of editions. Things started off quietly enough, but then diners at next door's popular canteen Ferdi began leaving their tables mid-meal to grab a coupe of Champagne and catch up with their friends inside. L'Officiel magazine's radio-studio truck arrived out front and started pulling in partygoers for after-show postmortems. And most of these folks were in addition to the evening's actual invitees: pals of owner Vincent Darré (and edition designers past, present, and perhaps future) like Spike Jonze, Inès de la Fressange, Dior Fine Jewelry's Victoire de Castellane, and actress Arielle Dombasle with her husband, philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy.

The celebration was a family one, focusing on Pierre and Olympia Le-Tan. Papa Pierre, Paris' celebrated illustrator, unveiled his Apparition-Disparition fabrics for Maison Darré, which have a mysterious scatter print of eyes, faces, and bones, like clues in a detective story. Working with Le-Tan, according to Darré, is a labor of love: "Pierre is a crazy detail maniac, and he only does things when he feels like it. It took over a year to finish the fabric." Daughter Olympia, on the other hand, works more quickly. She was launching Boîtes de Nuit, the second round of her limited-edition fabric-covered embroidered clutches. Last season's best seller, which featured a replica of an early-edition cover of J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye, was snapped up by the director Jonze, who also special-ordered Moby Dick for his pal Maurice Sendak. Jonze is currently working on a promotional film for the bags, starring Le-Tan's take on Bram Stoker's Dracula, with the story's characters spilling out of the purse in 3-D. "I've known Olympia since she was a baby," Darré said. "Now she's taking after her father, who's always surrounded himself with books."

— Rebecca Voight