If you’re seeing claw clips everywhere, it’s because they are.
As we reach the thick of summer, it seems women and girls have traded in the regular elastic hair tie for freshly fashionable claw clips. Now, the clips commonly seen are brightly colored, bejeweled and, at times, shaped into popular motifs, such as butterflies or flowers.
Though popular retailers including Madewell and Urban Outfitters have upped their claw clip and hair accessories collections in the last year, it’s two indie brands that perhaps stand out the most in the category — Emi Jay and Chunks.
The Los Angeles-based Emi Jay, founded by Julianne Goldmark, has become one of the most popular brands for a wide assortment of hair clips and accessories. Its products feature vibrant hues, prints, adornments and fun shapes. One of her best-selling products, The Big Effing Clip, has been produced in colors like neon green, pink and blue, and seen on celebrities Dua Lipa and Kendall Jenner.
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“With Emi Jay, we come up with so many unique shapes, colors and collections that girls just really love to collect them. I’d say 80 percent of our customers always come back,” Goldmark told WWD. “As summer comes around, our products have always been perfect for it since they’re super colorful and summery. The claw clip is just a cuter, easier way to keep your hair up.”
The strong resurgence of the claw clips can also be largely attributed to the comeback of style trends from the ‘90s and early Aughts, with many consumers longing to relive that nostalgic time period through fashion, according to Goldmark and Chunks founder Tiffany Ju.
“We kind of forgot about clips for a long time,” Ju told WWD. “They were big in the ’90s, but then they kind of were relegated to the drugstore — you know, the ugly brown ones at the drugstore — so people just forgot about them. Then I think people remembered this is a part of our body that we could accessorize again, so people are now going nuts for it.”
Though Chunks had always been known for their now-signature black-and-white checkered clip, the Seattle-based brand received meteoric worldwide fame almost overnight after Jisoo of Blackpink mentioned she always carries a Chunks claw clip in a “What’s in My Bag” video for Vogue Korea. In particular, the K-pop star loves the Checker Claw and confessed to owning virtually every colorway.
After the Vogue feature, orders for Chunks from South Korea increased by 3,000 percent. “It was crazy,” Ju said.
According to a report by Google, searches for “flower claw clips” in the U.S. have tripled in the last year, with searches for “flat claw clips” increasing by more than 850 percent. Queries for claw clips in general reached a record high in the U.S. for the month of June.
At this point, both Emi Jay and Chunks’ distinguishable claw clips are serving as conversation-starters for people in New York City and Los Angeles, who instantly recognize the designs.
“My friends in New York City mentioned on their walk to work every day, they see girls wearing an Emi Jay clip and they always know it’s ours,” Goldmark said. “I feel like it’s a really cool connecting moment. It’s so amazing to see a brand bring people together in the simplest of ways.”
Ju agreed, saying she’s heard stories from her customers exchanging stories and connecting with others because they own a clip from her brand.
“I’ve gotten so many personal stories from our customers of these bonding moments they have in an elevator with a stranger over their Chunks,” she said. “I just love it. It’s the best thing I could hear from a customer.”
According to Google, “flower claw clip” and “butterfly claw clip” both take the top two rankings for most-searched styles, both of which are now signature to Emi Jay’s collections. Meanwhile, “checkered claw clip” rounds out the top five — that pattern is strongly associated with Chunks.
Aside from their obvious hair-based uses, claw clips are also being clipped on to handbang handles or straps as an accessory — a trend Goldmark said she has noticed.
“We realized women really want a fashionable way to put up their hair that is effortless. So many girls clip them to their purses when they go out at night, and it’s like your companion that can hold your hair back at any moment of the day,” she said. “It’s just like one of those things that you can have on you at all times.”
As ‘90s and Y2K trends continue to influence contemporary street and celebrity style, it seems like the demand for claw clips is not slowing down any time soon.
“As long as there will be cute hair clips, I think claw clips are here to stay,” Ju said. “I definitely want to stay super creative with our ideas. A lot of people have been like, ‘It seems like a trend that’s going to kind of come and go,’ but I think it just depends if the designers keep making cute stuff.”
Goldmark concurred, saying, “When people get in the habit of using something they’re really comfortable with and doesn’t dump their hair, I can’t imagine a world in which they’re not going to want that product. But it’s up to us to continue creating unique hair accessories, whether it is claw clips or other ways of keeping your hair up and out of your face or accessorizing your outfit.”