Coin collectors and fashionistas can now have the same object of desire. To celebrate Coco Chanel's 125th birthday, Karl Lagerfeld has designed a €5 coin. The coin is a limited edition which features a Coco Chanel portrait on one side and the iconic Chanel quilting on the other. Lagerfeld's signature appears on the front of the Coco coin. It has been approved by the French Mint and is offered in gold and silver. The gold version costs €5,900, and there are only 99 of them in existence. The silver version cost €45 and there are 11,900 of them. The coins go on sale in December.

My colleague Annie Scott recently wrote about how Louis Vuitton custom makes one-of-a-kind cases for special clients who can afford the service. One of our favorite examples of Vuitton's bespoke art is the iPod carrying case trunk (above) the famed French firm made for Chanel kingpin Karl Lagerfeld. Made of black Taiga leather with brass fittings and a red microfiber interior, it contains an interior case which holds 20 iPods and a power charger. There are compartments for JBL iPod speakers and subwoofer, and Lagerfeld's initials are stamped in red near the handle. Vuitton will custom make a case for just about anything, provided that it is portable. The process of creating a bespoke case like this can take four to eight months and costs tens of thousands of dollars.

As you know we've been following the story of flamboyant Chanel designer Karl Lagerfeld's purchase of a historic house in Vermont's Lake Champlain Islands. Now Vermont independent paper 7 Days has come up with the first photo of the house, above. The 3,800 sq. ft. spread consists of a Greek Revival-style brick house dating to 1850 with a newer addition. "Amenities include a small apple orchard, a couple of pear trees, a paneled library and an awesome view of the lake," 7 Days reports, noting Lagerfeld paid just over $500,000 for it. They also note that the house, which is "sizable though far from opulent" is basically right on the highway. Last week Lagerfeld staged a Chanel photo shoot there, as we reported he would, with a crew of 40.

We have a few more details about the historic estate in Vermont's beautiful Lake Champlain Islands (above) purchased by flamboyant Chanel designer Karl Lagerfeld earlier this month, as we reported. Here's what one of Lagerfeld's new neighbors wrote in to tell us about the six-bedroom property:

"It's in Grand Isle, Vermont. It's a Greek Revival home built in 1850, and it's on the Vermont Historic Registry. The price was under $1 million. There are numerous second-home owners in the area - from Montreal, Florida and New York - but no [other] well-known international celebrities. Until now, the Champlain Islands have been a well kept secret.... There are many other estates for sale up here much larger than Lagerfeld's new property, but in terms of price and privacy he got a great deal."

Our tipster adds that Lagerfeld is expected at the house this week for a Chanel photo shoot.

Here's how the town's website describes Grand Isle: "Bordered on three sides by water: on the east with the Inland Sea and the west with the broad lake of Lake Champlain, and to the north the 'gut' at the drawbridge to North Hero. It is the hub for the connecting year-round ferry to Plattsburgh, New York, 30 minutes to Burlington, and a day trip to Montreal. The fertile farmland overlooking vistas of breathtaking sunrises and sunsets is one of tranquility & peaceful pastoral views." You can see a Google map of the area here.

If you're interested in buying your own Grand Isle estate, our tipster suggests checking out the Sweeney Farm property on 10 acres, listed at $1.5 million.

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.

Usually to purchase the jewels of a Getty you'd need some pretty deep pockets. But Ann Getty's collection doesn't just include precious gemstones, she also has a large collection of costume pieces, some of which are being auctioned over the weekend by Doyle New York. The collection includes pieces by Chanel, Miriam Haskell, Kenneth Jay Lane and others. And because they are costume pieces you'll be spending several hundred dollars for most pieces. The rhinestone necklace shown above is one of the pricier pieces. It was made in France in the 1950s and is estimated to sell for $750-$1,000.

[via SF Unzipped]

Teddy bears are such a universal item its hard to make one someone wouldn't adore. Growing up there was the Paddington Bear, then Build-A-Bear came along, but the most recent creation, which makes a truly unique (and expensive!) mark on the history of stuffed bears, is the Karl Lagerfeld teddy bear made by Steiff. Touted as a 'master of luxury', Karl Lagerfeld may be seen by many as the quintessential choice for a luxury bear that costs upwards of $14,000 and will be sold at Neiman Marcus this September in NYC. I think the bear could be mistaken as one of the Men In Black if you don't follow the design industry but either way it is cool, chic, and totally original.

Saks Fifth Avenue along with the Entertainment Industry Foundation recently announced that Gwyneth Paltrow will act as the new ambassador for the 2008 Key to the Cure, a women's cancer initiative. Karl Lagerfeld has designed the exclusive tee for the cause, with all proceeds going to cancer research.

The weekend-long shopping event is slated for October 16 through October 19 at Saks stores nationwide and online at saks.com. Two percent of proceeds from the weekend's totals will be donated to the Women's Cancer Research Fund. Now in its 10th year, the annual Key to the Cure event has raised over $28 million for cancer research and treatment programs.

Fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld's already packed schedule is getting a little busier. The quirky fashion icon has signed a deal with Dubai Infinity Holdings to design limited edition homes on Isla Moda, the world's first dedicated fashion island, located on Dubai's The World project. Lagerfeld will design 80 homes total.

Lagerfeld has designed for Chanel and for his own lines for years, is also a photographer and has created campaigns for brands such as Dom Perignon. He has opened a bookshop on the leftbank of Paris and start a new venture as a publisher of art books with his publication house, 7L. He has designed his own homes but this is his first commercial residential project. In a press release, Lagerfeld described Dubai as "a fashion bud on the verge of blossoming into the next fashion hub of the world."

Isla Moda will include a fashion hotel and a variety of luxury residential villas. The Hotel Moda will have approximately 250 rooms and serviced apartments as well as boutiques representing the world's most prominent designers.. There will also be design studios and dedicated areas for fashion shows and project launches. Isla Moda is set to open in 2011.

Hotels are fine as far as they go. For a really luxurious vacation however, renting a private house or villa is much the better choice. Of course the prices at the top-end can be astronomical. If money is no object, however, a new book called Luxury Houses: Holiday Escapes is a perfect guide to the best high-end hideaways around the globe. One of the standouts is Chanel designer Karl Lagerfeld's former villa in Monaco (pictured here), which can be yours for a mere €30,000 per week. For that you get six bedrooms, panoramic views of the ocean and the mountains from an enormous terrace, a pool, Jacuzzi, game room and a tent on a private beach. The interior is described unironically as "quasi royal."

Also on display is the Birkenhead House in Hermanus, South Africa (about $7,000 per night) with eleven bedrooms and three pools, dominating a steep cliff above Walker Bay where whales frolic; and Villa Indigo in the Caribbean Sea within a protective reef in Anguilla with two pools and a private beach and sandbar, for $16,000 - $38,000 a week depending on the season; as well as dozens more ritzy rentals from ski chalets in Switzerland to modern palaces in China.

From what I know of the nouveau-skinny fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld, he doesn't eat a lot. Sure he used to in indulge back in his zafitg fan-flapping days but that was before he fell in love with Hedi Slimane's clothes and dieted himself down to fit them. So you can understand my surprise at the news that Lagerfeld had designed a cake. But lo and behold, he has collaborated with Parisian baker Lenôtre to create a unique Buche de Noel. The holiday log is made of gingerbread with almonds and hazelnuts filled with a compote of sweet orange and apricot and a chocolate coulis. It comes in a mirrored box with a tiny ax made of hard sugar.

[via Sybarites]

Fashion designer and iPod aficionado Karl Lagerfeld has lent his name to a rather distinctive project, a Steinway Limited Edition Lagerfeld. The piano is done in black lacquer with glossy red accents and has an angular style. Lagerfeld's design includes a rounded rectangular music desk and legs inspired by Lagerfeld's childhood growing up in Hamburg, Germany. The piano sells for around $100,000.

[via The Globe and Mail]

We've mentioned Karl Lagerfeld's collaboration with Dom Perignon's 1998 vintage before. He shot the ad campaign and now Fashion Week Daily reports that he has designed a special gold studded bottle of the bubbly which will be sold in a limited numbered edition. The champagne known as A Bottle Named Desire is in a jeweled case that bears Lagerfeld’s signature and sells for $2,500. If you are more interested in what is actually inside the bottle, you can pick up a bottle (sans Uncle Karl's bedazzling of course) for $108.99 at Costco.