Karl Lagerfeld Buys Historic Vermont Mansion

Flamboyant Chanel designer Karl Lagerfeld has bought a historic mansion on an island in Vermont's rustic Lake Champlain. Lagerfeld never visited the 1840 six-bedroom landmark in person, but made the purchase based solely on photographs. "I love it. It's very much Emily Dickinson," Lagerfeld told WWD backstage at the Chanel show in Paris. We suspect he may be referring to the poet's picturesque houses in Amherst, Mass.

Lagerfeld tells the paper the Lake Champlain landscape reminds him of Northern Europe, and says he's planning an elegant yet still fashionable New England-appropriate décor rather than his usual Sun King splendor. He did not reveal the property's price, but declared, "I'll start doing the Chanel campaigns there" - so he obviously plans to write it off as business expense.