Maurices is the largest mall women’s chain you have probably never heard of unless you live in a town with a population under 100,000. Founded in Duluth, Minnesota in 1931 and now headquartered in Iowa, Maurices has roughly 900 stores, sells sizes 0 to 26 on the same rack, and writes its own paycheck without ever needing to be the cool brand. After tracking the brand through two ownership changes for Tumbleweed Thrift readers, here is the honest read on what maurices.com is actually worth your money in 2024.
Maurices is a size-inclusive contemporary brand — straight sizes 0 to 24 and plus sizes through 26 sold side by side, not in a separate plus section bolted onto the main store. That is rarer than it sounds and it shapes everything about the brand: the pattern grading, the in-store layouts, the way the sales staff talk about fit. This guide covers what Maurices does best (denim, casual basics, dependable wardrobe-builder pieces), where it lags (anything trend-forward), how the price tier compares to Loft and Old Navy, and where Maurices fits inside the broader Plus Size Contemporary universe alongside more plus-specific brands like Lane Bryant.
What Maurices actually is in 2024
Founded by E.M. Maurice in 1931 in Duluth, Minnesota, Maurices has spent ninety-plus years quietly becoming the default mid-market women’s brand for small-town and Midwestern America. The company filed for bankruptcy in 2020 along with parent company Ascena Retail (which also owned Ann Taylor and Loft at the time) and emerged under new ownership: OpCapita, a private investment firm, acquired Maurices later that year and has run it independently since.
The footprint is roughly 900 stores across the United States and Canada — a count that puts Maurices well ahead of Lane Bryant (~600), Loft (~600), and Express (~400), even though most coastal urban shoppers have never set foot inside one. The store distribution is the explanation: Maurices is heavy in the Midwest, the Mountain West, and small-town markets across the South and Plains. In Manhattan or San Francisco you will struggle to find one. In Cedar Rapids, Sioux Falls, or Bismarck, Maurices is the anchor women’s store at the regional mall. Searches for things like “maurices colorado springs” reflect this geography — the brand’s core customer is Main Street America, not coastal urban.
Sizing runs 0 to 24 in straight sizes and through 26 in extended sizes, with the same cuts available across the size range rather than a separate plus line. Pricing falls in the $30 to $80 range for most categories, which puts Maurices below Lane Bryant ($30 to $90), comparable to Loft on sale, and slightly above Old Navy at full price. Sale culture is aggressive — markdowns happen weekly, and a savvy shopper rarely pays full retail.
Denim: the category that pays the rent
If Maurices has a hero product, it is jeans. The “m jeans by maurices” sub-line covers the entire denim assortment across rises, washes, and cuts, and the depth is genuinely impressive — at any given moment maurices.com is running 12 to 18 distinct denim styles across sizes 00 to 24, with multiple inseams per cut and washes that range from raw indigo through distressed light. For a mall mid-tier brand, that is an unusually deep denim library.
The fit consistency is what brings shoppers back. Maurices denim runs honest to the size chart, the rises measure where they say they measure, and the same cut bought two years apart still fits the same way. That sounds like a low bar, but it is a bar that most mall denim brands miss — Loft denim has shifted three times since 2020, Old Navy’s Rockstar fit has crept tighter through the high-rise era, and Express denim is on its fourth pattern revision this decade. Maurices just keeps making the same dependable Everflex straight-leg, the same Wannabettabutt high-rise skinny, the same denim cuts in the same way.
The honest negative on Maurices denim is that the trend curve is slow. Wide-leg and barrel jeans showed up at Maurices roughly two years after they hit Loft and Madewell, and the assortment is still light on the trend silhouettes (no real low-rise revival, only a token barrel option). For a shopper who wants the trend turn, Maurices is not the move. For a shopper who wants a pair of straight-leg medium-wash jeans that fit the same as the pair you bought in 2022, Maurices is exactly right. Browse the current denim selection at Maurices M Jeans on Amazon.
Tops, basics, sweaters, and the wardrobe-builder play
Beyond denim, Maurices is at its strongest in the workhorse-basics category — the cardigan you reach for on a cold morning, the V-neck T-shirt three-pack, the cable-knit sweater that survives a winter, the layering tank you wear under everything else. None of these are interesting pieces. None of them photograph well. All of them keep working.
Pricing on this category is the brand’s sharpest value: a Maurices long-sleeve T-shirt at $20 to $25 outperforms an Old Navy equivalent on fabric weight and washes better than a comparable Target Universal Thread piece. The sweater assortment, in particular, punches above its price point — the cable-knit cardigans that show up in fall collections every year are the kind of pieces shoppers buy in two colors and rotate for years. The dress assortment is similarly basics-heavy: T-shirt dresses, simple wraps, knit midi cuts, basic fit-and-flare. These are not occasion dresses. They are dresses you wear on a Tuesday because you do not want to think about what to wear on a Tuesday.
Where Maurices slips: occasion-wear of any kind. Cocktail dresses, statement blazers, party tops with sequins or beading — Maurices makes some, but the cuts feel cautious and the fabrics often look heavier in person than they do online. If you need a dress for a wedding or a work holiday party, Maurices is not the first stop. (Loft is better at occasion dresses; Eloquii is better at plus-size occasion dresses; even Old Navy has been sharper on the occasion piece in recent collections.)
The size-inclusive integration: what it actually means
Maurices is one of the few national chains that genuinely sells straight sizes and plus sizes side by side rather than running a separate plus department or — worse — a separate plus website. In a Maurices store, the same denim cut hangs from size 00 through 24 on the same rack. On maurices.com, the size selector at product level lets you pick anything from 00 to 26 without bouncing to a sub-domain.
That integration is meaningful. It means a plus shopper can browse the same trend pieces, the same colorways, the same prints as the straight-size shopper without finding out at checkout that the trend piece “wasn’t available in extended sizes.” It also means the in-store experience for plus shoppers is fundamentally different from Lane Bryant or Torrid (which are plus-only) — Maurices is for the shopper who wears a 6 in some cuts and a 22 in others, the shopper whose size has shifted across years, the shopper who is shopping with a friend who is a different size. The trade-off is that Maurices does not have plus-specific fit expertise the way Lane Bryant does — there are no Cacique-equivalent fit specialists, no plus-specific bra fittings, no patternmaking that is grading from a plus base. Maurices is grading up from a straight-size base, which works fine for casual cuts and gets less reliable as you move into structured pieces and the upper end of the size range.
Maurices vs Loft vs Buckle vs Old Navy: the brand position
The cleanest way to position Maurices against its competition is to think of it as a Loft-and-Old-Navy hybrid that lives in markets where Loft does not exist.
Maurices vs Loft. Loft is more polished, more office-leaning, more East-Coast-coded. Maurices is more casual, more denim-heavy, and consistently 15 to 25 percent cheaper on comparable basics. If you live in a market with both, Loft for the work blazer and the dress, Maurices for the jeans and the cardigan. If your mall has only Maurices (which is true for most small-market shoppers), Maurices covers most of what Loft would.
Maurices vs Buckle. Buckle is the closest direct competitor on denim and on small-town store geography — both chains anchor a lot of the same regional malls. Buckle goes deeper on Western and country-aesthetic denim brands (Miss Me, Rock Revival, etc.) and skews younger; Maurices is broader and more grown-up across categories. For a 30-something shopping for everyday denim, Maurices is the safer bet; for a 20-something who wants the rhinestone-pocket Western look, Buckle wins.
Maurices vs Old Navy. Old Navy is cheaper, broader on basics, and stronger on kids and family. Maurices has better denim consistency, better fit, and a more grown-up aesthetic. The Old Navy basic T-shirt is the cheapest serviceable option; the Maurices long-sleeve is the upgrade you keep.
Maurices vs Lane Bryant. This is the comparison that matters most for plus shoppers. Lane Bryant is plus-only, with deeper plus expertise, the Cacique bra line, and a more developed plus-specific fit system. Maurices is broader (straight + plus together) but thinner in the plus-specific categories (no real bra line, no plus-specific tailoring). For the plus shopper who values trend variety and the experience of shopping with straight-size friends, Maurices wins. For the plus shopper who needs structured pieces, bra fittings, and consistent plus fit, Lane Bryant wins.
Maurices.com and the app
The maurices.com online experience is functional, fast, and not winning any awards. The site loads quickly, the size selector works, the search returns reasonably relevant results, and the checkout flow is short. None of that is exciting; all of it is competent. Reviews are visible per product, and most are honest — the brand does not appear to manipulate or filter reviews aggressively, which makes the star ratings useful when sorting between similar cuts.
The Maurices app adds modest value: app-only deals during major sales, faster checkout with saved sizes and payment, and the loyalty card scanning. For a once-a-year shopper, the app is not worth the install. For a regular shopper who already has a Maurices VIP credit card, the app probably is. Logging in via maurices login or www.maurices.com gives access to your VIP rewards balance, the Style Cycle birthday discount, and saved orders for fast reorders.
Returns are 30 days from purchase, by mail or in any Maurices store with the original packing slip. The mail-return process is straightforward (printable label, drop at any USPS or designated carrier). The in-store return is faster — refunds post immediately to the original payment method. Online-only items can also be returned in-store, which is useful for the DTC-exclusive cuts that some categories carry. The full breakdown is in Maurices Online Shopping and Maurices Customer Service for support channels.
The loyalty program: VIP card and Style Cycle
Maurices runs two stacked loyalty layers. The Style Cycle program is free, requires only an email signup, and gives a birthday discount, occasional early-access emails, and points-style rewards on every purchase. The Maurices VIP credit card sits on top: 20 percent off the first purchase, 5x points per dollar at Maurices, occasional cardholder-only sale events, and free shipping promos. The card is Comenity-issued (same backend that handles Lane Bryant’s card and most mall-retail private-label cards).
The math on the VIP card is similar to most mid-tier mall cards: worth it for a shopper who buys from Maurices several times a year and pays the balance in full each month, not worth it for the once-or-twice-a-year shopper. The credit-card APR is high (consistent with most retail cards), so revolving a balance erases the rewards quickly. Use the card for the rewards, not the float.
What Maurices is not: the honest weaknesses
Three places where Maurices consistently disappoints shoppers and where the brand has not closed the gap on competitors.
One: trend cycle lag. Maurices is two seasons behind on most trend silhouettes. Barrel jeans, baggy denim, low-rise revival, oversized blazers — all of these arrived at Maurices roughly 18 to 24 months after they hit Loft, Madewell, and the trend-leader brands. For shoppers who want the season’s silhouette while it is still the season’s silhouette, Maurices is not the move.
Two: occasion dressing. The dress assortment is built for everyday wear, not for occasions. The cocktail and party dress category is thin and the cuts feel safe. For weddings, holiday parties, or anything photographed, look elsewhere.
Three: the brand aesthetic. Maurices feels frozen circa 2018 in its product photography, marketing, and overall visual identity. The store interiors are aging in some markets. The website design is functional but not modern. None of this affects the actual product, but it does mean the brand reads as “your mom’s mall store” to shoppers under 25 — a perception problem the brand has not actively countered.
Where Maurices wins on price
One specific value play that Maurices does well: the combination of a Style Cycle email signup, a frequent-shopper VIP card, and the brand’s aggressive sale calendar means a regular shopper can build a Maurices wardrobe at 40 to 60 percent below sticker. Major sale windows are Black Friday, end-of-season clearance (January and July), the spring anniversary sale, and the back-to-school sale in August. Stack a clearance price with the cardholder 20 percent and free shipping at $75 (or the cardholder threshold) and the effective price drops fast.
Browse the current Maurices selection across categories at Maurices Women Jeans on Amazon for an idea of what shows up via Amazon’s resellers, though the canonical inventory and the loyalty stacking only work on maurices.com.
The verdict
Maurices is the dependable mid-market workhorse — the brand for jeans that fit the same way they did two years ago, for sweaters that survive a winter, for a layering tank that costs $15 and washes 30 times. It is not the brand for trend-forward dressing, occasion pieces, or cutting-edge silhouettes. The size-inclusive integration is the brand’s quiet superpower, and for the plus shopper who wants to shop the same cuts as straight-size friends without bouncing to a separate plus site, Maurices is one of the few national chains that delivers it.
The honest position: Maurices is the right brand for a specific reader and the wrong brand for a different one. If you are building a wardrobe of dependable basics in a market where Loft does not exist, Maurices is the default. If you are a plus shopper who needs structured workwear, real bras, or trend turnover, Lane Bryant or Eloquii will serve you better. If you live in a coastal city with full mall access, Maurices is probably not the brand you make a special trip for. For everyone else — most of the country — Maurices is the quietly competent option that has been there the whole time. Browse current denim and basics at Maurices Tops Women on Amazon.
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FAQ
What sizes does Maurices carry?
Maurices carries straight sizes 0 to 24 and extended plus sizes through 26, with most cuts available across the full range. The sizing is integrated rather than split into a separate plus department — the same denim, tops, and dresses are sold from size 00 through 26 on the same product pages and in the same store racks. Some specialty cuts (workwear, occasion pieces) may have a narrower range; check the size selector on each product.
Where does Maurices have stores?
Maurices operates approximately 900 stores across the United States and Canada, with the heaviest concentration in the Midwest, Mountain West, and small-town and small-city markets across the South and Plains. The brand is light in coastal urban markets — large coastal cities often have no Maurices location — but in regional and small-market malls Maurices is frequently the anchor women’s store. Searches like “maurices colorado springs” reflect the brand’s strength in mid-sized regional cities. Use Maurices near Me for the official locator.
Is the Maurices VIP credit card worth it?
For shoppers who buy from Maurices several times a year and pay the card balance in full each month, the VIP credit card delivers real value: 20 percent off the first purchase, 5x rewards points per dollar at Maurices, occasional cardholder-only sale events, and periodic free-shipping promos. For occasional shoppers, the card is more friction than benefit, and the high retail-card APR makes carrying a balance an expensive way to give back the rewards.
How does Maurices compare to Loft and Old Navy?
Maurices is roughly 15 to 25 percent cheaper than Loft on comparable basics, more denim-focused, and more casual in aesthetic. Loft is more polished and office-leaning. Compared to Old Navy, Maurices is more expensive but offers better denim fit consistency and a more grown-up aesthetic. The cleanest framing: Maurices is a Loft-and-Old-Navy hybrid that lives in markets where Loft does not exist.
Does Maurices carry plus sizes online?
Yes. Maurices.com carries the full extended size range (through size 26) integrated with straight sizes on the same product pages, and the online assortment is typically broader than what individual stores stock. For plus shoppers in markets where the local Maurices runs a tighter in-store assortment, maurices.com is the move. The full plus range is not split into a separate sub-domain or plus department.
