Deja Vu Fashion

Anne de Legere: Age of Enlightenment

It was an unassuming basket, on an unassuming day, set on the back steps of an unassuming servant’s entrance. Attached to the steps was anything but unassuming—it was the Grand Palace know as Versailles.

In the basket, nestled in rough linen cloth was a beautiful girl child. On her way to the stables for fresh milk, Mm. Rouge, head of the kitchen staff, practically stumbled over the child in the basket. Normally a gruff, sensible and stoic woman, Mm. Rouge fell instantly in love with the beautiful baby and in spite of immense hardship, raised the girl as her own with the help of the other kitchen servants. Anne, as she was called, was in essence, raised in a Palace.

Mm. Rouge, fearing for her daughter’s future, sought to teach her a trade and as it turned out, even as a child, Anne had a talent for sewing and soon became an accomplished dressmaker. Using every connection that she had, Mm. Rouge sent young Anne away for schooling. Anna returned from school as a beautiful young woman. She had changed her name to Anne De Legere and set about to distance herself from her humble background.

While visiting her adopted mother, Anne met the handsome young Prince and they fell, of course, madly in love.

Alas, what could have been a classic tale of true love, was not to be. One afternoon, so as not to be discovered, Anne hid in a large trunk near the Prince’s bed chamber. Unbeknownst to her, the trunk was to be picked up and shipped to South Africa. Not wanting to be discovered, poor Anne was taken out to sea with less air in the trunk than she needed. Her Prince, once he discovered what had happened, took his boat out to try to catch up to her. Unfortunately, he, too, was lost at sea.