A promenade in Rundle Mall
Words and direction: Sharmonie Cockayne
Pictures: Thomas McCammon
To ‘promenade’ is to take a leisurely public walk, ride, or drive so as to meet or be seen by others.
I know this because I Googled it after binging both seasons of ‘Bridgerton’ in two days.
As a society, we’ve moved on a bit since the trends and behaviours of the 1800s.
While we tend not to don our finest empire waist gown or skirts supported by hoops and panniers for an afternoon stroll in the park, nor rely on promenading as a tool for courtship, we do still make a habit of dressing to enter the public sphere.
For all the years Thomas and I have explored the city for Style Sample, on this one random rainy day, the general public we encountered in Rundle Mall Adelaide had never looked more put together.
We’re ashamed to admit that this was a little bit of a shock to us, as we have generally come to expect to see a more relaxed approach to dressing in the colder months.
What we encountered was the softest leather jacket Adelaide has ever seen, gorgeous thick woollen coats, a lot of dad-core, luxe sneakers, and a tote bag by a YouTuber/coffee entrepreneur who is also a Louis Vuitton ambassador.
We – the eyes of society, if we do say so ourselves – were impressed.
Perhaps the act of promenading is more alive than first thought.
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