Teen accessories and jewelry retailer Claire’s said its stores will undergo a “glow-up,” one year after it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
The company, which moved from Hoffman Estates to Rosemont earlier this summer, plans to invest in its piercing services and in-store experience, starting this month. The transformation will happen across Claire’s 900 locations in the U.S. and Canada, according to a news release. The Chicago area has 19 locations, including one at Water Tower Place.
“We really do see [piercing] as a responsibility, not just a service,” Claire’s Vice President of Retail Operations Carey Brezler said. “It is a milestone moment, and it’s a rite of passage for so many. … We always say that it’s a transformation. It’s not just a transaction.”
The retailer wants to create an in-store experience that so-called “Claire’s Girls,” — or Generation Alpha, born between 2010 and 2024 — will flock to.
The company is leaning into what it was known for — helping teens reach a milestone with their first ear piercing. Since it’s founding more than 50 years ago, over 131 million people have pierced their ears at Claire’s, the company said.
Growing up in South Bend, Indiana, my mother brought me to the local Claire’s when I was 4 years old. I left that day with a pink Dora the Explorer wallet, stickers and pierced ears.
It became a stop during mall days a decade later with friends. At 19, I went back with my best friend for another ear piercing.
But the retailer didn’t start out with piercing services. In 1973, Chicago native Rowland Schaefer, owner of wig business Fashion Tress Wigs, acquired Claire’s Boutiques as part of a move to shift into the accessories business, the Wall Street Journal reported. He soon began tailoring the merchandise to preteens and teens, and the business was renamed to Claire’s Accessories.
A Claire’s opened in the South Bend area the same year it was founded. My mother was 16 at the time. She wanted to get her nose pierced, against her parents’ wishes. While Claire’s didn’t offer piercings until 1978, they had sold a self-piercing kit, which my mother said she purchased. Soon after, she was sporting a nose stud and avoiding her parents.
My mother, now 68, remembers frequenting Claire’s throughout high school, and a decade later for an ear piercing.
“It was the only place in town with affordable, cool jewelry and accessories,” she said.
My grandmother, 96, is equally rebellious, and found her way to Claire’s.
When she was 93, she decided wanted to get her ears pierced again so she could wear earrings. My grandmother directed her at-home helper to make a stop at the mall and requested to be taken to Claire’s — getting her piercing at the same store I had decades earlier. She told the family after it was done.
With this new transformation, Claire’s is hoping to create a similar experience for a new generation. Their plan includes store redesigns, as well as clinical training for piercing staff and FDA-registered medical devices. Shoppers will be able to visit an interactive “inspiration bar” to build an earrings stack, take Instagram selfies and squeeze stress toys during piercings to help ease anxiety or fear, according to the release.
Claire’s faces a competitive landscape, as ear-piercing studios like Rowan and Studs have grown in popularity with trendy accessories and colorful store interiors.
The company is also trying to move past its operational struggles that led to its second bankruptcy. Its court filing said it had assets and liabilities ranging between $1 billion and $10 billion.
“Increased competition, consumer spending trends and the ongoing shift away from brick-and-mortar retail, in combination with our current debt obligations and macroeconomic factors, necessitate this course of action for Claire’s and its stakeholders,” Clarie’s CEO Chris Cramer said at the time.
Maryland-based private equity firm Ames Watson acquired the company in September 2025 for $140 million, with plans to modernize the retail chain, according to a news release from the firm.
“One of the things that we have to remember too is that Claire’s itself was a troubled company, but it wasn’t a troubled brand” Brezler said. “There is so much brand resonance. You talk to anybody, and you say, ‘I work for Claire’s.’ It’s unreal how many stories there are.”
She said Chicago-area locations will be updated by the end of August. Its flagship location at Woodfield Mall will be updated on Aug. 22.
And its deep purple hue, familiar to older generations, has been replaced with what’s described as a “Gen Alpha-approved shade of purple,” called lilith. And there’s a new tagline — “I got pierced at Claire’s.”
“When we talk about the Claire’s girl, it’s myself, it’s you, it’s your grandmother, sister, your aunt, your mother … because it’s something that has transcended time,” Brezler said.
