By Jin Lovelace; HSM team writer and filmmaker

Over time, I’ve managed to warm up to the Billabong brand on Home. By my own admission, I never knew of the brand’s existence until it was announced back in 2010 with their fashion debut on Home in SCEE Home; a region that I seldomly traverse to at that time. During that time, I saw pictures of the products and – quite frankly – it didn’t fully interest me.

I felt I needed to experience the apparel first hand for myself and not just observe from a distance how the garments looked on someone. As a fashion specialist, I tend to truly have a hands-on experience to grasp the underlying concept of the designs, which item fits, which doesn’t; how the product would stack with the overall presentation and the accessibility of the apparel. From what I’ve noticed at the time, Billabong featured some complex styles that some would dub as hippie.

For me, that wasn’t the case; my mind were set to see if they were worthy of my money to be spent on the items.

Flashing forward to now.

When Billabong touched down to the SCEA servers, I saw many that would laud over the styles of the items but the price–at that time–were too sumptuous to be the standard fare for Home’s average $0.49-0.99 price tags for fashion items. Personally, I felt that there had to be a reason why such rich pricing on the apparel existed and that inspired me more than enough to give the items a try.

What I didn’t expect from this line is the sheer quality of the items, let alone finding the accuracy of the real-life apparel translating to Home to be extremely topnotch. Much to one’s delight, I highly laud Billabong simply because their styles are vastly different. Something that you could wear which would make you appear elegant with a sound definition. It went beyond what I expected and totally changed my perspective on how certain items with a high cost and their perceived value. A bit of an FYI here: I also lauded the Diesel brand before their withdrawal from the Home community.

But did it meant that all high price tags equate to better clothing? Not necessarily, and I can point you to some fashions on Home that features a high price tag, and the style aren’t worth the money for it at all. In essence, sometimes bigger doesn’t means better.

Well for this article I would like to exempt Billabong from the aforementioned statement.

“Why,” you ask?

Well VEEMEE is doing a Summer sale on their Billabong items that were released before May 6, 2013. And if you ask me, this is quite possibly the biggest fashion sale of all-time on Playstation Home.

And what’s even better is there’s nothing better than hosting a sale on some of the best apparel on Home.

What I wish to elaborate on is not on what items you’re getting but of the benefits of your purchase. For one, if you’re starting off on Home then this is the bundle for you–be it male or female. There’s literally every item on sale that were released before the stated date and much to chagrin, every item on hand that will suit your fashionable taste. The styles can be worn either off-the-rack or combined effective with other apparel, and who’s to say the former doesn’t look good by itself? What I like most about Billabong is they have a style that fits every occasion.

For Summer, you can throw on a pair of Runaway Shorts and and an Undercover top and have a nice sit down on a sandy beach. Winter? The Jamie Anderson pants look remarkably good with an Edison Jacket (in two colors, mind you), or a Late Night Fleece with a pair of Jovie Denims. And if you desire a night out with your friends at a dance club, you’ll have an assortment of dresses to choose from between the eccentric Lovelorn to the sensual, form-fitting (yet wildly popular) Laelia Dress. You’ll have–literally–so much to choose from and to play around with.

Even for the guys, the boardshorts and a slew of fleeces are at your disposal to suit one’s achievement in defining a clean cut look and appeal with a suave style. In fact, the most compelling argument for male avatars on Home is if there are enough legitimate fashions on Home; well this is valid proof that such good styles do exist.

What’s even better is, of course, the price. Whereas you would spend just $1.99 for a Cosmia Dress or $1.49 for the Jovie Denims, you can have all of the items bundled for either $4.99 for the “Best Sellers” bundle, which comes with twenty popular items (first and second volumes for both male and female), $1.99 for shirts and shorts bundle (fifteen male items and three female items) featuring the very first Billabong items ever made on Home, or just go all out and purchase the ultimate bundle for $64.99 for males, and/or $49.99 for females.

My literal thought when I saw the vignette here in Home and over in EU on the sale?

Are you serious, Veemee? Really?!

But the biggest inquiry here is if these bundles are truly worth your money?

If you haven’t noticed my tone in this article, then I’ll just put it to you succinctly: yes, it is!

It is because if you’re new to PlayStation Home and wish to start off on some quality fashions in your wardrobe, it’s beyond better to start yourself off with either best-sellers volume packs or just go for the entire wardrobe with the ultimate bundles. If you’re a Home veteran (as they would say) and you have most of the items from the first wave but haven’t completed your collection, these bundles are a great way to save cash. If you haven’t bought any of the said Cosmia dresses (for example) and you wish to own them, they each are priced for $1.99. I’ll just let you do the math from there.

I can’t see anything wrong with this deal, aside from once it ends, the sale will be gone for good and there’s no telling when something like this will happen again. VEEMEE really astounded me on this deal, and I hope to see something similar like this from other fashion vendors on Home. This would be a great way to introduce some top quality fashions to the new users or to even reintroduce veteran users with items that they’ve missed before.

I just know now there’s no excuse about steep price tags being the main reason not to own these items right now.

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2 Responses to “Billabong Summer Fashion Sale”

1. KrazyFace says:

   July 15, 2013 at 8:30 am

   I wasn’t aware Diesel had pulled out of Home? I thought they (not long ago) released that art museum place and have an (admittedly closed-looking) shop space with a “coming soon” egg? Unless I’m thinking of another brand…

   The Crazy thing about Billabong (that are quite prominent fashion labels in the UK and AU) is you can’t do them any free advertising flavours in Home, the censors won’t allow you to say the company name: BillaBONG! ; )

   I have a few of their tops, it’s well made stuff, rarely clips with too many other items too wich is always a bonus. Their dresses look particularly good, but I’m not a girl so, heh, no sale there; sorry Billabong.

   I do like my Diesel too, but what I’d really like are just more shirts with an open collar (and a button missing at the bottom would be cool too -- not enough of those IMO). The fully buttoned up collar on casual shirts look weird I think.

   Also need more casual suit jackets, y’know, open ones with a SIMPLE shirt underneath with an open collar -- just coz I wanna put on a smart jacket without looking like I’m heading to an office meeting.

   Reply
   • Jin Lovelace says:

     July 15, 2013 at 5:06 pm

     The Billabong censorship on Home here in NA changed maybe a couple of years ago. Now you can say the name with no problem.

     Diesel definitely left officially earlier this year. They released some new items but sadly, I believe they weren’t well-received. I’ve written an article on it over at the Twilight Touch site.

     Billabong has been the staple of my wardrobe on Home since it’s release and many of my fashions feature their items--both male and female avatar.

     For this sale to happen is really insane, for sure!

     Reply