As soon as Karl Lagerfeld saw the house in Vermont he knew he had found the setting for the next Chanel ad campaign.

It is a typical New England wooden house, set on the banks of Lake Champlain, with a severe and puritan look that makes it seem like the house has been frozen in the mid 19th century.

As the designer put it: “I love this house, it is so Emily Dickinson,” referring to the tormented romanticism of the American poet from Massachusetts whose work went unrecognized during her lifetime.

It was in the empty rooms of this vast six-bedroom house that the designer photographed Heidi Mount – the 21-year-old American model from Salt Lake City who opened the 2009 Spring-Summer Ready-to-Wear show.

Karl Lagerfeld has also said that the campaign shots are inspired by the work of the Danish painter Vilhelm Hammershoi, whose austere interiors with sunlight flooding in through the sash windows are the backdrop for silent feminine meditation.

Via designscene