Maarit’s research interests range from stage and film costume history, dress history and the use of technological tools in design and research processes. Her pioneering doctoral thesis investigated the notions of digital character costume design in computer-animated feature films. Maarit also participated the European Research Council consolidator-grant funded project Refashioning the Renaissance: Popular Groups, Fashion, and the Material and Cultural Significance of Clothing in Europe, 1550–1650, led by Professor Paula Hohti. In this project Maarit built digital reconstructions of historical garments.

In 2019, Maarit won the Herbert D. Greggs Honor Award from the USITT editorial staff and the TD&T Publications Committee for her costume history article ’The King and His Costumes’. Maarit’s dynamic involvement in international discourse is visible in her memberships in OISTAT Costume Sub commission, Society for Animation Studies (SAS), Performing Dress Lab, and an active member of Costume in Focus Research Group (CiF). In the past, Maarit has also been a visiting scholar at the University of Connecticut, working with Emeritus Professor Laura Crow in creating a Virtual Costume Museum and a historical costume database. She has co-curated historical dress exhibitions in the US and conducted independent art pieces to exhibitions in Finland.