Claire’s Taps Ex-Gap Talent to Revitalize U.S. Brand as European Markets Falter

Claire’s is making a comeback in its home market. The accessories company for teenagers has hired Michelle Goad, the former CEO of Athleta, the Gap-owned brand, to lead the company in the U.S. with the plan to relaunch the business. Meanwhile, in Europe, the company continues to face difficulties that threaten its continuity.

Through a strategy focused on a new in-store piercing experience, the executive joins Claire’s reporting to Lawrence Berger and Tom Ripley, co-founders and partners of Ames Watson. The group acquired Claire’s for $140 million last year, saving the company from liquidation.

The goal, as advanced by WWD, is to expand the target audience to 14-year-olds and update the stores’ presentation and marketing strategy, which will be implemented starting in the first quarter of the year.

As Goad explained, “the drilling experience is the key driver, we have drilled 110 million consumers to date and will drill around 2 million this year”. For the executive, this “service has such an appeal that you simply can’t find it on Amazon or in any online store”.

Claire’s has seen its subsidiaries in the United Kingdom, Ireland, France and Spain fall while it focuses on rebounding in the United States

Claire’s is planning its relaunch in its home market while seeing its subsidiaries in Europe shaken. In the UK, the company suffered its second bankruptcy in less than six months at the end of January, and only four months after its last rescue by the investment group Modella Capital.

In Spain, the accessories company went into liquidation in mid-October, posting a 6.13% drop in sales in 2023 (fiscal year ending January 31st, 2024). In France, on the other hand, Claire’s filed for bankruptcy protection at the end of July, in an attempt to secure its future by seeking a buyer for its business in the country.

In the United States, however, the company has also run into difficulties over the past year. In August, Claire’s filed for bankruptcy protection, its second bankruptcy filing in the country since 2018. At that time, the company’s owner, Apollo Global Management, transferred the asset to creditors, which included Elliott Management and Monarch Alternative Capital.

Michelle Goad has been chief digital transformation officer for Athleta, the Gap-owned brand from August 2024 to January 2026. With a degree in business economics from the University of California, Santa Barbara, Goad took her first steps as head of wholesale merchandising and marketing at Marc Jacobs in 2007. At the same time, she launched PS Dept in 2011, assuming the position of executive director. In 2012, she left Marc Jacobs and in 2017 she left PS Dept to join Nike as global head of conversational commerce. Goad led areas such as brand services globally at the sports equipment company, holding positions as general manager of digital innovation for Generation Z in 2019 and being promoted in 2020 to general manager of Nike’s business unit focused on new generations.

In 2022, the executive founded Greatest Of All Digital, through which she joined The Chernin Group as an operating partner. In the same year, and in parallel, she was appointed CEO of Market Studios, owned by The Chernin Group, as well as vice president of digital at Alo Yoga. In 2024, she became chief digital officer at Athleta, the Gap-owned brand.