Kay Thompson skibbled into town this week accompanied by her irrepressible brainchild, Eloise, the fictitious moppet who lived at the Plaza-Hotel-where naturally, she and Miss Thompson have taken up residence.

"Eloise scampered off to the package room to see if my new pants suit has arrived from Victor Joris," Miss Thompson announced on a recent morning. Whippet-thin, of what the French call "a certain age," Miss Thompson is 75 percent eyes. They're the color of the luminous blue topaz ring she wears, seldom with more than a Gucci bracelet and a watch.

Curled up comfortably on the green velvet couch, Miss Thompson took time out between phone calls from old friends and new admirers to talk about herself, her clothes, her erstwhile fling at a fashion career, her nightclub career (in the nineteen-forties she toured the country with the Williams Brothers) and Eloise, toujours Eloise.

"I've always been on the periphery -- of fashion, I love it," she confided. "I used to get all my clothes in Paris but not any more. Bardot said it better than anyone - Who wants all those old lady clothes?"'

From California Store
Obviously not Miss Thompson, who was togged out in a timely blue pants suit with a simple, crew-neck shirt.

"I got it at Chequers West in Los Angeles" she said, hopping up nimbly to produce two others like it, one in beige and one in white. "Do you like it?"

"Nowadays I like to travel light and buy clothes when I get there," she said-between bites of yogurt. "I like department stores. I just got a great vest at the Different Drummer."

As one of the first women to wear pants in public, much less in a nightclub ("My manager had a fit. What will they say in Boston? Nobody did anything about it.") it followed that Miss Thompson would try her hand -at designing some with Evan-Picone, Inc., when her night-club act broke up.

"It was great fun and came to a natural end when I went off on another tack," she explained. In addition to writing books, composing music and performing as an entertainer, Miss Thompson has worked in television as a consultant.

"It's like putting your head in a Bendix," she said ruefully. She lived in Rome for six years before going to California five months ago. In town for a new edition of "Eloise" (Simon and Schuster, $4.95) Miss Thompson hopes to design a line of children's clothes of the sort she thinks suit Eloise "and her empire."

"There's a whole generation grown up in the last decade that will be looking at her with fresh eyes," she said happily. "The wife of a young friend of mine read 'Eloise' recently and where she talks about her mother's lawyer it says,
     Here's what he likes
     Martinis
     Here's what I like
     Grass
"Do you know she asked me if I meant marijuana, I told her 'no' but to read it any way she wanted to."

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