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 adds, noting they now shop at places like jewellery chain Lovisa. Nell Campbell, 34, calls the closure "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 since her teens and isn't surprised, as there are "so many exciting brands that have come along."

Experts say the brand suffered a perfect storm of post-Covid spending drops, competition from cheap online retailers like Shein and Temu, 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.

"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 aimed at tween and teenage girls, plus ear piercing. By end of 2012, it had over 3,000 stores across North America and Europe, with franchises in the Middle East, Asia and South America.

But its popularity waned as teens moved away from colourful earrings, necklaces and hair bobbles, 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." The pandemic accelerated the shift as teens turned to online shops like Shein and Temu for cheaper accessories, Hewson says, with TikTok Shop and second-hand sites like Vinted and Depop broadening 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 lacked offerings like make-up lessons to entice people in. "It just provided stuff. And that just wasn't enough to get people to go in," she says.

The US firm first filed for bankruptcy in 2018. In August last year, the US arm filed a second time, which CEO Chris Cramer called a "difficult decision" but necessary. Later that month, the UK arm went into administration but was bought by Modella Capital, leading to about 145 store closures and 1,000 job losses. By January 2026, Modella put Claire's into administration again, saying the UK high street climate "remains extremely challenging."

Richard Hunt, director at Liquidation Centre, notes broader high street pressures: rising rents, higher business rates, 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."

Sylvia Wright, who used to shop at Claire's for her now-adult children, says they "used to absolutely love it" but stopped as they got older. Hewson says Claire's would have needed a serious revamp to get younger generations back through the doors - an impossible challenge in recent 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."