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Project Handbag Winning Design Arrives at maurices

DULUTH, Minn.-(Business Wire)-September 4, 2008 - Nearly eight months after the launch of maurices Project Handbag design contest, maurices, the leading small town specialty store and fashion authority for the savvy, trend-conscious girl, and FashionIndie.com, which provides an independent view on fashion design, welcome the winning design into maurices stores across the country.

“We’re thrilled to finally put the winning bag into the hands of our customers,” said Lisa Rhodes, executive vice president and chief merchandising officer at maurices. “We instantly knew that Christina’s design was the perfect bag to represent the maurices brand and we’ve been waiting months to see the customer’s reaction."

Beginning this past January, aspiring designers were invited to visit maurices.com and FashionIndie.com to submit handbag sketches for the Project Handbag Design Contest. Fashion Indie then narrowed the entries to ten finalists and sketches of the selected bags were posted on FashionIndie.com and maurices.com for public voting. The top three vote-getters continued on to a third round where a panel of fashion industry experts selected Christina Oertel, a Wisconsin based, 27-year-old graphic designer and mother of two, as the grand prize winner. Christina's bag will be sold exclusively in all maurices retail outlets beginning in September.

"Winning maurices Project Handbag was a dream come true," said Christina. “I never imagined I could accomplish my childhood dream of becoming a handbag designer. I am so excited to see my design come to life and can't believe it's going to be on the shelves of one of my favorite stores.”

The "Christina" bag fits perfectly with maurices fall collection which features fashionable menswear-inspired looks as well as edgy rocker styles and softer peasant, ruffle and chiffon tops.

"We designed this competition to allow our customers to express their individuality and show us what they wanted to see in our stores," said senior vice president and chief marketing officer Vivian Behrens. "We believe Christina is a great representation of our core customer and we're excited to give them the opportunity to make the winning bag part of their fall wardrobe."

About maurices

Established in 1931 with a single store in Duluth, MN, maurices is wholly owned by dressbarn, inc. (NASDAQ:DBRN). Today, maurices operates over 650 specialty stores nationwide and is continuing to grow with an estimated 50 store openings annually in the coming years.

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