I’m 31 years old, and yet I can vividly remember my first adult-free shopping trip as if it were yesterday. Finding out I was allowed to get on the Tube to Harrow on a Saturday afternoon and browse the delights of St George’s shopping centre – with only my best friends as companions – was the most thrilling thing to happen to my 12-year-old self. And where did we immediately head to and spend the entirety of our time and pocket money? Claire’s Accessories, of course.
Those hallowed lilac aisles beckoned us like moths to a flame because Claire’s genuinely had everything we teenage girls desired. We couldn’t care less what was stocked in Zara or Mango: Claire’s had all the brightly coloured, bedazzled, glittering, gemstone-encrusted jewellery and accessories girls our age could want. Hours were spent in that store, studying every single multipack of earrings on the rotating stand until I decided on the ones that would go perfectly with my school disco outfit. I distinctly remember a pair of pink dangly earrings I loved so much that, when I lost one, I went back and repurchased the same pair. They probably cost around £6, but their value to me was so much higher.
