'Childhood memories' - why nostalgia wasn't enough to save Claire's

BBC

It wasn't long ago that friends Lucy Craddock and Taylor Crouch had shopped at Claire's. But when they walked past on Tuesday, the once colourful store was covered in hoarding after all shops closed.

"It's very sad, because it's [our] childhood," says Lucy outside the former Claire's on Oxford Street in central London.

"I got my ears pierced at Claire's when I was little," Taylor says, adding they now enjoy shopping at places like jewellery chain Lovisa as well.

Nell Campbell, 34, says the closure was "a little bit sad" because she got her ears pierced there as a 12 or 13-year-old.

"It definitely holds childhood memories," she says.

But she hasn't visited the store herself since she was a teen, and is not surprised the chain has closed as there are "so many exciting brands that have come along".

Experts say the brand had suffered from a perfect storm of a post-Covid fall in spending, competition from cheap online retailers, and a failure to keep up with fashion trends.

Now all 154 stores in UK and Ireland have shut down with the loss of 1,300 jobs, ending a year of turmoil for the brand.

"Claire's just wasn't cutting it in the same way anymore," says Danni Hewson, head of financial analysis at AJ Bell.

Claire's, founded in the US, first appeared on British high streets in the late 1990s selling jewellery and accessories mainly aimed at tween and teenage girls, and offering ear piercing services.

By the end of 2012, it had more than 3,000 stores across North America and Europe alone, with franchises and stores across the Middle East, Asia and South America.

But its popularity began to wane, as teenagers moved away from the colourful earrings, necklaces and hair bobbles the brand was known for, says fashion expert Priya Raj.

"Really the collapse of Claire's in the UK says a lot about how pre-teen and teen tastes and shopping preferences have evolved in the last decade," she says.

That issue was accelerated by the pandemic as teens turned to online shops like Shein and Temu for cheaper accessories, Hewson says, with the rise of TikTok Shop and second-hand sites such as Vinted and Depop also broadening their options.

Raj agrees: "We've gone from a high-street driven, cookie cutter approach to an evolving, social media driven market."

Besides ear piercing, Claire's also lacked offerings like make-up lessons to entice people into stores.

"It just provided stuff. And that just wasn't enough to get people to go in," she says.

'Difficult decision'

All those factors combined to spell serious trouble for the chain.

The US-based firm first filed for bankruptcy in 2018. In August last year the US arm filed for bankruptcy a second time, a move the company's chief executive Chris Cramer said was a "difficult decision" but a necessary one.

Later that month, the UK arm of the firm was placed in administration but was soon purchased by Modella Capital in a deal which led to about 145 store closures and 1,000 job losses.

However by January 2026, Modella put Claire's into administration again, saying the climate on UK high streets "remains extremely challenging".

Richard Hunt, director at Liquidation Centre, said the broader high street context mattered, as UK retailers in general have faced rising rents, higher business rates and lower foot traffic.

"Claire's was particularly vulnerable because it relied on physical stores in shopping centres and depended more heavily on impulse buys, which are rarer today with the rise of online shopping," he says.

"This failure to adapt ultimately put financial strain on the business, as its model became increasingly vulnerable."

'Used to love it'

Sylvia Wright says she used to shop at Claire's for her two children, who are now adults.

"They used to absolutely love it," she says, but adds as her children got older they stopped shopping there.

Claire's is a nostalgic brand for many, but it would have needed a serious revamp to get the younger generations back through the doors, Hewson says - and that appears to have been an impossible challenge over the last few months.

"You add into all of that a cost of living crisis, which meant that parents were really struggling to find any disposable income in order to buy the kind of pink goodness that you would find at Claire's, and it just felt like it never really stood a chance."

With additional reporting from Faarea Masud