Claire's pierced a generation of teens' ears — and filed bankruptcy twice in seven years

Claire's was the default rite of passage for American teenagers: cheap jewellery, hair accessories, and — for millions — the first ear piercing, done in-store. At its peak the chain ran more than 2,750 stores worldwide, almost all of them in the one place its customers already were: the shopping mall.

The first bankruptcy came in 2018, as US mall foot traffic declined; the restructuring was meant to buy a future. What it bought was time, and the trend kept going: teenagers moved their attention and their spending online, and the debt from the chain's private-equity era stayed on the balance sheet. On 6 August 2025 Claire's filed Chapter 11 in Delaware for the second time in seven years, listing both assets and liabilities in the range of $1 billion to $10 billion.

Chief executive Chris Cramer called the decision 'difficult, but a necessary one', citing increased competition, consumer spending trends, the shift away from brick-and-mortar retail and current debt obligations; stores would stay open while the company explored strategic alternatives. The two filings bracket the same unfixable fact: a retailer whose entire proposition is being where teenagers already are cannot follow them when they leave, because the place they leave for has no storefront to rent.