Old-school Chanel does it best in the social media arena

Paris

DESIGN houses have been full of angst, despair and braggadocio this season about its relationship with social media. To cave in to the bacchanal of flamboyance or to remain mies-en-scene free and pure? What to do?

It's a false choice.

There is no such hair pulling at Chanel, one of fashion's most venerable brands and - in this era of designer comings and goings - surely its most stable. It has long balanced high culture with low, penny-pinching aspirational shoppers with money-is-no-object princesses.

Who doesn't own a bit of Chanel? There are the power brokers in their discreet suits, red carpet walkers in their glorious gowns, the nouveau riche who can't…