City Beach

City Beach, a two-​story haven for Haviana-​wearing Perthians. Here you’ll find all of beach-​wear attire with all of the main labels: Billabong, Rusty, Roxy, etc. Now in the approaching winter months, heavier jackets, long-​sleeves and slippers are interspersed among Perth-girl’s must have: mini-​skirts. Cruise to the sale racks where you’ll find items marked as low as $ 29. Look them over though as I found a marked-​down skirt with a hole in it. No dice. Surfboards were also on sale (one damaged, of course).
The store was laid-​out neatly with ample room. Being in the store for over an hour, I wasn’t approached once by a store-​worker. When I searched for one, I was still unsuccessful. Seems as though they only exist at the check-​out counter and fitting rooms. Makes it incredibly hard if you have any questions on an item.

Growing up in Mauritius I and pretty much everyone else basically lived in Billabong, Roxy, Quicksilver and other surf brands because surf shops were pretty much the only good/​trendy clothing available. However once I discovered a love for clothing and had the opportunity to travel I refused to go back to buying from surf shops.
When I moved to Perth and heard about City Beach my mind was already made up; they would probably have the same beach wear type of clothing I used to wear but up to trend that is so over priced. When I did decide to go have a look I was actually surprised by the variety of clothes they stocked; they have everything from party dresses, cute casual wear, tones of bikinis to awesome sandals and boots.
Although the stuff isn’t really my cup of tea I can see why people like it; it’s trendy clothing with a touch of beach life and surprisingly the prices are not as bad as I expected.

I know there are branches of City Beach all over the place, but the Harbour Town shop was the first one I ever went in — and my, what an introduction it was. Having since been in several of the regular shops, I can say that the outlet store at Harbour Town is a little different. Mainly in that it’s bigger and MESSIER. The shelves are a jumble of mismatched clothes vaguely grouped together by style, with hats, belts and other accessories randomly strewn around. If you want to find the real hidden gems you need to be prepared to put in the work — not that you can really call it work, when you’re getting more and more excited at the bargains you gradually unearth. The first time I went I got a little overexcited and eventually staggered to the fitting room carrying my body weight in beachwear. Despite the slashed pricetags I sadly couldn’t afford to get it all, but I came away with a few unique items that I absolutely love. Special mention goes to a really nice Billabong hat which was labelled at $ 15 — what a bargain, I thought. Imagine my surprise and delight when I got to the counter and found that it was not $ 15, not $ 10, not even $ 5, but a ridiculously reasonable $ 2. I was chuffed to say the least. Several of my other purchases turned out to be cheaper than the marked price — needless to say I came away happy after that shopping trip. It can be a little difficult to find smaller sizes (as is the way with outlet stores), but when you do it’s definitely worth it!