Assessment Task 3 Communication Artefacts from a Design Perspective Harry Hughes Artefact: Le Louvre on Collins Street Le Louvre is a retail outlet widely considered as part of the upper class “Paris end” of Collins Street. It is a place prominent in Melbourne’s history because it is seen by many as the last remaining link between Melbourne and European haute couture. According to the Lonely Planet guide to Melbourne, many Melbournians are “too scared to step inside the Parisian outlet” due to the associations that come with shopping at Le Louvre.
This is the collaborative group publication from the design group. First arterfact: Le Louvre by Harry Hughes. Second arterfact : Koori Artwork by Chan Lai Wah. Third arterfact: Larry Latrobe Statue by Minh Huy Le. Final arterfact: painted street sign, corner of Celestial Lane off Little Burke Street by Ruby Mountford
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Assessment Task 3 Communication Artefacts from a Design
Perspective
Harry Hughes
Artefact: Le Louvre on Collins Street
Le Louvre is a retail outlet widely considered
as part of the upper class “Paris end” of
Collins Street. It is a place prominent in
Melbourne’s history because it is seen by
many as the last remaining link between
Melbourne and European haute couture.
According to the Lonely Planet guide to
Melbourne, many Melbournians are “too
scared to step inside the Parisian outlet” due
to the associations that come with shopping at
Le Louvre.
Since the 1930s, when the term “Paris end” came into wide usage (and was in
fact coined by founder and original owner Lillian Wightman), the store has been
respected as an outlet of fine fashion and an aspect of the city’s upper class. This
is primarily due to the part it played in introducing European designers to
Melbourne at a time when elitist fashion started to become important to
Melbournians. It is thus clear that this retail store was, and still is, able to link
Melbourne and the white Australians who founded it to another place – Europe.
Le Louvre helps to communicate that Melbourne is not a stand-alone city; it has
cultural links to many other places. These cultural links are not confined to
Europe; they extend to Greek, Aboriginal, Chinese and several other cultures.
(Greek cafes, Aboriginal art, Chinatown and British-originated signs are just a
few examples of these cultures).
The building was originally a townhouse built in 1855. In 1927, the owner of the
time had its
façade stripped
and altered, and
from then
onwards, the
appearance of
the building has
barely changed. The “enigmatic” façade now boasts a distinct Parisian style and
design – large glass windows showing off the gold-lit interior, wooden
framework, and several floors above the ground level, similar to certain
luxurious stores on Paris’ Champs Elysees. Indeed, just walking past any of the
“high end treasures” on Collins Street (such as Chanel and Gucci) transports you
to another place and time; truly a far cry from the dingy and dark laneways that
fester all over the central business district.
In Pamie Fung’s article “The seduction of the laneways: making Melbourne a
‘world city’”, she writes about Melbourne’s laneways and analyses their appeal;
how they give Melbourne the air that it has. Fung mentions that structures in
Melbourne’s central business district “compress different European places, styles
and times” and that “modernity and sophistication are located in the ‘classy’
Euro-look of the city centres”. It is clear that European style was strived for by
Australians (if only because Australia is viewed, even by Australians as a
“primitive backwater”) and the Parisian style structure of the Le Louvre building
no doubt plays a part in giving Melbourne the “Euro-look”.
William H. Jordy’s architectural study “The Symbolic Essence of Modern
European Architecture of the Twenties and its Continuing Influence” speaks of
the influence of European architecture on the rest of the world during the 1920s.
A perfect example of this is, in fact, Le Louvre, the design of which includes the
trademark “extravagantly open interiors” that were present all over Europe.
REFERENCES:
1. (Anon), “Fashion & Fun”, Total Travel, 22 May 2010,