'No daughter buys her mother's label... the only exception is Chanel'

The quotation above is from fashion industry consultant Gloria Gelfand.

It was buried deep within a long May 25 New York Times Styles section front-page story by Eric Wilson about the implosion of the St. John knitwear line since it attempted to refocus on a younger audience 18 months ago.

Long story short: the company tossed its long-time face, Kelly Gray, overboard in favor of first Gisele and now Angelina Jolie (above, in a current St. John ad).

It has not gone well.

But that's of little interest to me — though I will say I found the Kelly Gray ads far more interesting than the generic ones the company now runs.

But I digress.

What interests me is Ms. Gelfand's observation about how the success of a fashion house now seems limited to one generation of women — never more.

How did Chanel manage to stay hot with both Paris's crowd and the social X-rays?

That's the fascinating, billion-dollar question for companies like Valentino and Dior.