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Heartbroken fans of Claire's can rest easy as its products will still be available in four major retailers, despite all of its remaining stores closing earlier this week. The UK's division of the jewellery giant, founded in 1961 in Illinois, entered administration in January, claiming it could not "evolve fast enough" to compete with "nimble online platforms" such as Shein and Temu.

While Claire's has spent decades as the global capital of ear piercing and "tween" fashion, its history has reached a dramatic endpoint in the UK. After a 1970s pivot from wigs to accessories and a massive expansion into shopping centres and high streets, the brand, known as Claire's Accessorise between 1973 and 1997, has been crippled by debt and shifting consumer habits.

As of April 2026, the brand has effectively vanished from the British high street, with its UK operator entering administration and shuttering all 154 standalone stores and cutting 1,300 jobs. However, the brand will continue to exist in small shop-in-shop concessions in supermarkets, including Asda and Tesco.

Claire's has confirmed that the concessions will remain open at all 356 of its locations. This includes major supermarket retailers Asda and Tesco, with Claire's products continuing to be featured in over 500 Asda sites. Matalan and New Look stores will also continue to feature the brand's pieces.

Shoppers who wish to find concessions still trading can do so via Claire's Store Locator.

This is the second time Claire's UK branch of the business, owned by Modella Capital (which also owns Hobbycraft and TGJones, formerly WHSmith), has gone into administration, following its first collapse in August last year. It then filed for a second time in January, citing rising costs, inflation and changing shopping habits. Approximately 1,300 employees were made redundant as the final shops were wound down, which saw a huge wave of obvious closing-down sales across the UK over the last few months.

Now, around 2,300 stores remain open worldwide, though the majority are based in North America. Historically, the company operated across 17 countries, including Canada, France, Spain, the UAE and even Puerto Rico. The UK and Ireland join South Africa and Japan as countries that have lost all of their stores.

Claire's has claimed it has done more ear piercings than any other retailer, totalling over 100 million over more than 25 years.

A spokesperson for Kroll, which was appointed to oversee the administration process earlier this year, said in a statement: "As of April 27, all Claire's standalone stores in UK and Ireland have ceased trading. All store employees have been advised of redundancy.

"We understand an interested party is in discussion with a number of landlords with a view to taking new leases for some of the sites."