Claire’s was a “ paradise ” from Glitz for children before Shein and Tiktok come

For Beth Searby, a teenager Saturday was not complete without going to Claire’s with her friend’s house.

But this rite of passage of tweearing seems uncertain because the future of the chain is at stake.

Beth and her friends used their pocket money at the end of the 90s to buy magnetic earrings, badges and toes from the accessories brand.

“You have never returned to your home empty -handed,” said Beth, now 30 years old.

Shopping there was like a “temo temo”, she says.

“You could enter with your elements of change that you had left by buying your McDonald’s or your King Burger and you could pick up a pair of earrings or a collar or a badge to put on your school bag and you would spend 50p, £, £ 2.”

Claire’s appointed directors in the United Kingdom and Ireland after fighting for the drop in sales and strong competition.

He said his 278 stores in the United Kingdom and 28 in Ireland would continue to negotiate while considering “the best possible path”, but he stopped online sales.

Originally an American brand, Claire opened her first British store in the mid -90s and quickly became a pillar among the pre -adolescents who flocked there for affordable hair ties, scintillating butterfly clips, matching friendship necklaces and a lip shiny.

“It was the final store of young people,” said Ella Clancy, 29.

She remembers using her pocket money to buy earrings, wheelbarrows and Lip Lip balms in adolescence.

The so-called “Glasses of Nerd”.

The stores were always “super pink and colorful and girly,” she says.

“When you are a little girl, it’s a bit like paradise”, explains Vianne Tinsley-Gardener, 23.

She would go to Claire’s stores in Braintree, Essex, to buy keys, earrings and stationery.

The stores were full of “unique small trinkets”, she says.

Its lucky dip bags – where you did not know what you get – and Multibuy offers its five articles for £ 10 transformation has transformed shopping into a treasure hunt and address the budgets of the pre -adolescents.

Claire’s was a must for young people who were pierced by the ears – and there were often special offers.

But many Buyers from Claire found that a point during their stay at secondary school, the brand has stopped being cool.

They turned to places like Accessorize, Topshop and Primark instead.

This was the case for Ceara Silvano, 23 years old. She remembers that she became too “Kiddish” when she was about 13 years old and she started shopping at Primark instead.

“You are just from things like that,” said Ceara – even if she has always come back later to have Claire’s ears pierced.

Al Thomann loved clear when they were younger due to its use of bright colors, glitter and floral drawings.

But as they grew up, they also started to see the brand as “childish” and stopped shopping there.

“You are starting to feel like a young adult, and all around me, most adults did not shop at Claire,” said 25 years old.

“Aspiring to be an adult meant rejecting this kind of childish, colorful, rainbow and unicorn fantasy.”

In the 2000s and 2010s, young people bought things because they loved them, rather than because they were in fashion, explains Constance Richardson, owner of the personal style company of Constance Rose.

But thanks to the growing use of social media, young people keep up to date with what is elegant online.

“Shein can see a trend on Tiktok and bring to life in a few days, often for much less money” than Claire’s, explains Georgia Wright, journalist at Retail Gazette.

Shein, an online online Chinese giant online, sells a wide range of items, including clothing, accessories and stationery at low prices.

Claire’s, in comparison, will not jump on trends so quickly, says Ms. Wright.

And he cannot compete on the price, says Miss Richardson. “They always sell new products at a non -novelie price.”

Another factor is that young people are often influenced by creators on social networks who are much older than them – and do not shop at Claire.

“Children grow up faster than ever,” says Wright. “You have 11 -year -old children with five -step care routines.”

At the other end of the Shein spectrum, they turn to higher-end brands like Sephora, Space NK and Astrid and Miyu, she says.

Claire “just doesn’t give the same excitement,” said Ms. Wright.

But the brand still occupies a special place in the hearts of many people.

Ceara says that she feels nostalgic for the idea of shopping at Claire’s and wants it to have kept articles as memories.

Whenever Ella passes in front of Claire’s stores, “it gives me a little smile”.

And some people say they always like to shop for the brand.

“While I started at university and I started thinking about my own sexuality and my gender identity and the way I wanted to introduce myself, the kind of articles that Claire sold again in my field of knowledge,” said al.

“All very beautiful and very unique earrings and necklaces, bracelets, flower crowns, these kinds of things, were almost instruments to display my own identity in a visible way.”