How a wig company ended up piercing America's ears
Claire's did not start as a jewelry store, and there was never a founder named Claire. Rowland Schaefer launched Fashion Tress Industries in 1961, when wigs were a mass market product, and built it into one of the largest fashion wig sellers in the country.
Wigs went out of style. In 1973 Schaefer bought Claire's Boutiques, a 25-store jewelry chain, and put that name on the whole company.
The decision that still defines the business came in 1978, when Claire's began piercing ears inside its stores. The service turned a rack of inexpensive earrings into a rite of passage, and it gave the chain the one thing a website cannot copy. A ten year old came in for a pair of studs and left with a permanent reason to remember the brand.
Claire's says it has performed more than 131 million piercings since 1978, a figure the company used again in its August 2026 announcement. For a large share of American women, the first jewelry they owned came from a Claire's counter in a shopping mall.
What the $3.1 billion Apollo buyout did to the balance sheet
By 2007 Claire's was close to saturation, with more than 3,000 stores worldwide and almost no debt. Apollo Management agreed in March 2007 to take the company private for about $3.1 billion. Shareholders approved the merger on May 24 and it closed on May 29, 2007.
The timing was poor. Crain's Chicago Business reported in 2011 that the buyout left Claire's carrying about $2.4 billion of long term debt, roughly 13 times its annual net income, months before the recession and the long slide in American mall traffic.
Claire's spent the next decade servicing that debt instead of rebuilding stores or catching up online. It filed for Chapter 11 in March 2018, and in its own October 2018 announcement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission it said the restructuring eliminated about $1.9 billion of debt and brought in $575 million of new capital. The company emerged that month under the control of its former creditors, Elliott Management and Monarch Alternative Capital.
The restructuring fixed the balance sheet and not the business. The same arithmetic emptied Toys R Us and shrank Sears to a rounding error.
Why Claire's filed for Chapter 11 again in August 2025
On August 6, 2025, Claire's Holdings filed for Chapter 11 protection in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, carrying close to $500 million of debt. It was the second filing in seven years, and this time the company warned that closing every North American store was on the table.
Chief executive Chris Cramer called the decision "difficult, but a necessary one" in the company statement reported by CNN in 2025.
The causes Claire's named were competition, consumer spending, the shift away from brick and mortar retail, its debt obligations and macroeconomic factors. That last phrase covered the 2025 United States tariffs, which landed on a retailer that imports most of what it sells.
Competition had also changed shape. Overseas sellers shipped cheap accessories straight to the shopper at prices a mall lease cannot match, and they reached the same twelve year olds through a phone. Specialty mall retail had already shown how fast that can go wrong, as the shrinking store count at GameStop made clear.
What Ames Watson paid and what the firm actually bought
Claire's found a buyer inside bankruptcy rather than on the courthouse steps. Ames Watson, the private investment firm behind the hat retailer Lids, agreed in August 2025 to buy the North American business and the Claire's intellectual property for about $140 million, and completed the purchase on September 19, 2025.
The deal covered at least 795 Claire's and Icing stores, with room to keep as many as 950, and it included roughly $36 million of seller financing along with assumed vendor and landlord liabilities. Planned closures were scaled back to about 300 stores once the offer landed.
Ames Watson framed the purchase as a brand rescue. "Claire's is one of those rare brands that defines a stage of life," co-founder Lawrence Berger said in a 2025 statement reported by Commercial Observer. His partner made the staffing case. "Every turnaround we've done begins with people," co-founder Tom Ripley told CNBC in 2025, describing the same product, experience and people framework the firm used at Lids.
That distinction matters for anyone asking whether the brand survived. A liquidator sells the fixtures and licenses the trademark. Ames Watson bought the operating business, the leases and the staff, which is why Claire's still opens its doors every morning.
Is Claire's still in business in 2026?
Yes in North America, no on the British high street. About 900 Claire's stores were trading in the United States and Canada through 2026, the figure the company used itself in August 2026.
The British and Irish business died in stages. Claire's Accessories UK entered administration in August 2025 and most of its shops passed to a new operator, CAUKI Limited, which itself entered administration on January 26, 2026. Administrators at Kroll closed the last 154 standalone stores in the United Kingdom and Ireland on April 27, 2026, costing about 1,300 jobs. Concession counters inside host retailers, including Asda, were not part of that closure.
North America went the other way. Centric Brands and Claire's said in a May 2026 announcement that a new licensing partnership would put Claire's product into more than 7,000 retail locations across the United States and Canada, including Walmart, Kohl's and CVS.
Then came the piercing rebuild. In August 2026 Claire's started rolling out a redesigned piercing service across all 900 stores, with FDA registered devices, a dedicated training team and five flagship locations at Tysons Corner in Virginia, Boca Raton in Florida, Woodfield Mall in Illinois, Roosevelt Field in New York and Ala Moana in Hawaii. "For decades, families have trusted Claire's with one of life's most memorable milestones," vice president of retail operations Carey Brezler said in the 2026 announcement.
Read together, the two moves describe the strategy. The mall count stops shrinking at roughly 900, the piercing chair stays as the service competitors cannot replicate, and the earrings and hair clips go wherever people already shop. Claire's is smaller than it has been since the 1990s, and it is no longer betting its future on the mall.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who owns Claire's now?
Claire's North American business has been owned by the private investment firm Ames Watson since September 19, 2025, when it completed a purchase of about $140 million out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Before that, Claire's was controlled by the lenders Elliott Management and Monarch Alternative Capital after its 2018 restructuring, and by Apollo Management following the $3.1 billion buyout that closed in May 2007.
Is Claire's closing all of its stores?
No. Claire's filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in August 2025 and closed roughly 300 locations, but Ames Watson bought the North American business in September 2025 and about 900 Claire's stores were still trading in the United States and Canada in 2026. The United Kingdom and Ireland are the exception, where all 154 standalone Claire's shops closed on April 27, 2026.
Does Claire's still pierce ears in 2026?
Yes. Ear piercing remains the core of the business, and in August 2026 Claire's began rolling out a rebuilt piercing service across all 900 of its United States and Canadian stores, with new training, FDA registered devices and a new earring range. Claire's says it has performed more than 131 million piercings since it started offering the service in 1978.