95-Year-Old Retailer maurices Puts Personal Styling at Heart of Brand Refresh
US womenswear retailer maurices has launched its first major brand campaign as part of a wider 2026 refresh aimed at attracting new customers and re-engaging its existing audience.
‘Sophie Has a Stylist’, created by new indie Art of Something, puts the 95-year-old retailer’s in-store personal styling service at the centre of its positioning, presenting something traditionally associated with luxury fashion as an accessible, everyday experience.
“What makes maurices different is the connection our stores and in-store stylists have with their communities – a deep care for the women we serve,” says Sara Moore, VP of brand marketing at maurices. “Our customers already know and love this about us, but it's not something the broader market knows. In-store styling was something we wanted to celebrate in its own right, but it also signals something bigger: the overall care and thought we put into everything we do.”
The campaign is the first major work from Art of Something, the indie founded in 2025 by Rob Kurfehs (ex-BBDO, Publicis) and Dan Sormani (ex-Goodby Silverstein & Partners, Mother), along with Kat Logan (ex-Saatchi & Saatchi, Johannes Leonardo). maurices came to them through a referral from a long-time client, with its in-store styling service immediately standing out as a clear point of difference.
“What really struck us was that maurices had this incredible differentiator – in-store styling, which no one else at a similar price point offers,” says Rob, founder and creative director. “But they hadn't really talked about it before. That was the opportunity: to take something they'd been doing for their customers and use it as a way to break through and capture attention.”
Built around the phrase ‘I have a stylist’, the work follows a character named Sophie as she reveals that her seemingly exclusive styling secret is a trip to maurices. And while the work certainly marks a fresh communication style for the brand, with an eye on attracting new customers, Art of Something didn’t think about the brief as “new versus heritage”, and more so a sharpening of an already strong voice.
“The brand has spent 95 years showing up for women across hometown America in ways that felt authentic, local, real,” says Kat, head of strategy. “The 'I have a stylist' platform isn't a departure from that, it's a distillation of it. The goal was to make longtime customers feel seen in a new way, while giving new customers a reason to pay attention and shop at maurices.”
Art of Something worked with Gifted Youth director Carlyn Hudson on the campaign, due to her experience with character-led, comedic storytelling. Rob says the ambition was to make the films feel more like “little pieces of prestige TV” than advertising to cut through the noise of the 21st-century content juggernaut and deliver familiar content audiences would enjoy watching.
“Prestige TV earns your attention because it trusts you to sit with characters and storytelling instead of spelling everything out,” he adds. “Caryln was the right partner for that because she understands how to direct comedy the way you’d direct a scene, not a spot.” Stacy Moon was brought on to edit the campaign, another intentional decision thanks to her work on comedies such as ‘The Chair Company’ and ‘The Rehearsal’ for HBO.
For such a significant moment for the 95-year-old brand, maurices set out to find a partner who truly understood what sets it apart from other competitor retailers; an agency that could “bring that to life in a way that felt modern, fresh, real and relevant”, according to Sara.
“It was important that whoever we worked with didn't stray from our core brand equity, but found a way to make it resonate with both our current customers and the new customers we want to attract,” she adds. “Art of Something stood out because they weren't afraid to be bold and inject real humour and creativity into the approach – they saw the opportunity to make people laugh as well as pay attention.”
For Art of Something, as a newly launched indie taking on its first full brand refresh for an established national retailer, the experience was “energising”.
“There's a version of this where a brand with 95 years of history plays it safe and goes with a bigger, more established shop,” says Kat. “maurices didn't do that. They bet on an independent agency that could move fast and stay close to the work. That kind of trust is exactly what an indie agency needs to do its best work, and it's the reason we started Art of Something in the first place.”
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