Statement of Cultural Heritage Significance:

STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE Le Louvre, an 1855 townhouse altered in 1927, is of historical and architectural importance at the State level.Socially, Le Louvre is well known as the last exclusive couture establishment in Collins Street, and as one of the institutions that helps to define Melbourne’s distinctive character as a place of elegance, refinement, and with an appreciation of history and tradition.Historically, Le Louvre was the shop for Melbourne’s elite from the 1950s to the 1970s, and its equally famous proprietor Lillian Wightman helped to introduce high fashion European designers to an increasingly cosmopolitan and discerning clientele. Le Louvre. Along with Georges and Myers, promoted high fashion, and helped to establish Melbourne as the fashion capital of Australia that it has become today. Le Louvre was an exclusive shop since perhaps the 1930s, and the name is an obvious reference to (or helped to establish) the reputation of what is known as the ‘Paris End’ of Collins Street. Originally the location of residences of the wealthy and particularly doctors in the 19th century, from the interwar period into the 1960s, this area housed many exclusive shops, artists studios, couture establishments, and professional suites, which gave this end of Collins Street the cache it still holds today. Located next to one of the ‘gaps’ left by the demolition of some of the historic buildings of Collins Street in the mid 1970s, Le Louvre is also well known as one of the places that was saved, and represents the turning point in the acceptance of the importance of heritage conservation in Melbourne. The building also has some significance as the earliest townhouse in Collins Street (albeit altered), and is relatively rare as a residential building in the city dating from the mid 1850s.Architecturally, the facade of 1927 is of interest as a simple early Victorian facade, stripped of detail to become a highly refined ‘Georgian’ backdrop, allowing the elegant copper shopfront of 1927 to dominate. This shopfront is one of the most attractive and notable from the interwar period remaining in the in the CBD.