Quick Facts

• Ames Watson acquired Claire’s North American business for $140 million after the retailer’s second Chapter 11 filing in August 2025.
• Claire’s is redesigning piercing areas across roughly 900 U.S. and Canadian stores, adding interactive inspiration bars, dedicated selfie spaces, and a 13-person Piercing Excellence Team.
• The company opened a 248,000-square-foot distribution center in Elgin, Illinois, and signed a licensing deal with Centric Brands to place products in more than 7,000 additional retail locations.

Claire’s is spending heavily to prove it can survive its second bankruptcy in seven years. The accessories retailer, now owned by private investment firm Ames Watson, is rolling out a reimagined in-store piercing experience across approximately 900 stores in the U.S. and Canada starting this month. The company calls it one of its most significant operational investments in decades.

The move follows a turbulent stretch. Claire’s filed for Chapter 11 in August 2025, reporting estimated assets and liabilities between $1 billion and $10 billion. At the time, it operated more than 2,750 stores across 17 countries. Ames Watson closed its $140 million acquisition of the North American business and worked with RCS Real Estate Advisors to keep at least 800 stores open, with a ceiling of 950.

The in-store overhaul touches nearly every part of the piercing experience. Stores are getting redesigned layouts, interactive inspiration bars for building piercing stacks, dedicated selfie spaces, and an expanded stud selection that includes lab diamond options. Claire’s also launched a new training program for piercing staff using FDA-registered medical devices.

A 13-person Piercing Excellence Team, with a combined 140-plus years of piercing experience, travels North America training store employees. The curriculum covers hands-on instruction, digital learning, guided practice, mock scenarios, and recertification. Five flagship stores will carry the largest expression of the new format.

The brand also introduced a new visual identity tied to a pastel palette and a new signature color called Lilith, described as a softer evolution of Claire’s iconic purple, developed with input from Gen Alpha consumers.

Executives say the target customer is driving the strategy. “There really is a trend of Gen Alpha girls who are seeking these in real-life experiences, and you can’t get your ears pierced online,” said Jillian Cueff, Claire’s Chief Merchandising Officer. Carey Brezler, VP of Retail Operations, said customer reviews made the urgency plain: “Frankly, it felt really dated.”

Behind the storefront, Claire’s is rebuilding its logistics infrastructure. The company opened a 248,000-square-foot distribution center in Elgin, Illinois, roughly 40 miles northwest of Chicago. The facility is designed to improve speed-to-store delivery and support omnichannel fulfillment across its 900-store network.

On the technology side, Claire’s cut its Microsoft Azure cloud spend by more than 48% year over year through automation and workload right-sizing. The company plans to implement a modern point-of-sale platform and deliver broader data and application integrations in 2026.

Claire’s is also pushing beyond its own store base. In May 2026, the company signed an exclusive licensing agreement with Centric Brands LLC to expand into new product categories and more than 7,000 additional retail locations across North America, including Walmart, Kohl’s, and CVS.

Ames Watson co-founder Tom Ripley pointed to the company’s store-level workforce as the core asset. “Every turnaround we’ve done begins with people,” Ripley said. “Claire’s has an incredibly passionate field team, many with 20 years or more in these stores, and their loyalty will be the foundation of this next chapter.” Ames Watson previously acquired Lids in 2019 and credits that deal as a model for its Claire’s strategy.

The combined bets, store redesigns, a new distribution center, technology upgrades, and a licensing expansion, reflect how much ground Claire’s needs to recover. Whether the investments translate into sustained foot traffic and revenue will determine if this turnaround holds where the last one did not.

Read more: Claire’s makes one of its biggest operational investments in decades