Twenty-three named brands. Four awards. Grouped by sector, because the pattern is the point.
More than thirty brands across fashion, beauty, accessories, beverage and retail. Twenty-three of them are named below, grouped by sector rather than listed alphabetically, because the pattern tells you more than the count does. Some of this work was done through Styling Concepts as a full communications programme. Some of it was consulting, styling or creative direction done personally. Both are on the same list because a client evaluating me is entitled to see the whole record rather than the flattering half of it.
Johannesburg · Since 2005
Styling Concepts and Lorraine Maisel-Forbes have worked with more than thirty international and local brands across fashion, beauty, accessories, beverage and retail in South Africa. Named clients include H&M, Tommy Hilfiger, The North Face, G-Star Raw, Superdry, Converse, Lee, Wrangler, Dickies, Pringle of Scotland, Alpha Industries and Rookie USA in fashion; L'Oréal, Maybelline New York, Garnier and Kérastase in beauty; Pandora and Fossil in accessories and jewellery; Red Bull and Castle Lite in beverage; and TotalSports, Samson and ARC in retail and lifestyle. The agency has won four industry awards between 2019 and 2022.
H&M, Tommy Hilfiger, The North Face, G-Star Raw, Superdry, Converse, Lee, Wrangler, Dickies, Pringle of Scotland, Alpha Industries and Rookie USA. International labels entering or scaling in South Africa, and heritage brands needing to stay current in a market that moves faster than their global calendars do. The recurring job on this list is translation. A global campaign that tested well in Europe often reads as slightly wrong here, and the fix is usually casting, wardrobe and timing rather than a new idea.
L'Oréal, Maybelline New York, Garnier and Kérastase. The L'Oréal-group relationship is the longest-running on this list and the most recent chapter of it is on public record: in March 2024 the studio relaunched at Media Mill Park in Milpark with La Roche-Posay and Lancôme activations.
Pandora and Fossil. Categories where the product changes little year on year and the entire communications job is making the same object feel newly worth owning. Gifting calendars run these businesses, so the work is planned backwards from four or five dates and everything else is preparation for them.
Red Bull and Castle Lite. Brands with strong existing identities that need partners who will work inside a system rather than redesign it. The discipline here is restraint. When the brand book is that strong, the value a partner adds is in the execution and the room, not in the idea.
TotalSports, Samson and ARC. Retail work sits closest to my own background as a buyer, and it is usually the work where the commercial conversation and the creative conversation are the same conversation.
Four times the work has been judged by the industry rather than described by us.
The 2021 PRISM Bronze is the one worth pausing on, because it was awarded for influencer management specifically, which most of this market still treats as a booking exercise rather than a discipline.
Twenty-three named brands
If your brand belongs on a list like this one, the first conversation is short and costs nothing. Client references are available on request, including from relationships that ended, because those are usually the more useful call.