I heard this rumor earlier this week, and it appears that it was true. Chanel designer Karl Lagerfeld has purchased a house in Vermont, on an island in Lake Champlain.

According to a "fashion scoop" from the WWD website, Lagerfeld has never actually seen the property in person, but he adores the photos.

“I love it. It’s very much Emily Dickinson,” Lagerfeld said backstage at Chanel, describing a landscape not unlike the North of Europe, from which he hails. The designer is already plotting a décor worthy of a Vilhelm Hammershoi painting – and perfect for a fashion campaign. “I’ll start doing the Chanel campaigns there,” he said.

Um, Emily Dickinson was from Amherst, Massachusetts. Or maybe he means that, because the house is on an island, he can shut himself up there and keep everyone else out? Become a hermit like the Belle of Amherst? That seems unlikely. Or was he referring to one of her poems?

The soul selects her own society,
Then shuts the door;
On her divine majority
Obtrude no more.

Of course, if he really wants to understand Vermont through its poets, he oughtta read some Hayden Carruth. That might actually scare him away...