Mr Bernard Woodruff worked and trained in model millinery with Aage Thaarup (London) and Renee Pavy (Paris) before launching his own model millinery business in Melbourne under the name Ronald Bernarde (1957?). He occupied a shop in Albany Court at 230 Collins St until Peggy Walsh's retirement (between 1961 and 1965) when he acquired her millinery business and moved into Gilbert Court at 100 Collins Street. Bernarde's clientele included actresses, society figures and heads of state. He took regular buying trips to Europe and earned a reputation as the top hat buyer in Australia. Bernarde supplied the headwear for the fashion parades of the renowned boutique Le Louvre, also situated in Collins Street at the time. His brother, Cr John William Woodruff was Lord Mayor of Melbourne from 1980-1981 and his father Cr. M. T. Woodruff was Mayor of Port Melbourne in 1945-46.

Peggy Walsh was a self-taught milliner who developed a successful and enduring business servicing an A-List clientele that included international celebrities, notably Vivian Leigh. Peggy Walsh Millinery was last located in Gilbert Court at 100 Collins St. Her husband, Gilbert (Gil) Walsh - a successful theatre and film administrator and investor— had bought the vacant lot at 100 Collins St in 1950 to build the first speculative office building in Melbourne. Gilbert Walsh died in 1951 before building began and Peggy Walsh subsequently sold the land with the condition that the building would be named after her husband. Mrs Peggy Walsh was appointed chairman of the directors for Gilbert Court Pty Ltd and owned the ground floor shops, one of which she occupied for the millinery business that she later sold to Ronald Bernarde.