Look around. Notice anything new about what people are wearing? If the answer is “claw clips,” you aren’t alone. Every so often, a fashion trend sweeps through RE overnight: scrunchies, butterfly clips, La Manso rings, oversized clothing. This year, the trend is claw clips—more specifically, claw clips by the company Emi Jay. Walk by any table of students, especially freshman, and you’ll see them in a range of patterns, designs and colors, holding up the hair of girls all around.
The accessory has become of the most popular trends of the year, not just within the RE community but also on social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok. Notoriously, however, it isn’t cheap. On Amazon, basic claw clips cost anywhere from $4 to $12—for a pack of 6. Emi Jays start at $34 per clip. At that price, they raise some questions. What makes them so appealing? And how exactly did they get here?
Before Emi Jay, there was the well-known claw clip. After the French inventor Christian Potut pioneered the combination of a comb and clip in 1989, the product became a fashion staple of the 1990s and early 2000s. It became inevitable that, when Y2K fashion came back in 2019, these clips would come back harder than ever. Used simply to keep one’s hair up, or as a way to spice up an outfit, claw clips have earned back the fame they once possessed.
Emi Jay itself started as a passion project when founders Julianne Goldmark and Emily Matson were in middle school. The name “Emi Jay” originated from the combination of the two girls’ names. They both had “a love for Gossip Girl and hair accessories,” Goldmark told me, which acted as the inspiration for the brand. They started off with hair elastics as their first product.
“Emily and I would go downtown and pull fabrics and beads, making headbands and hair ties to accessorize our school uniforms with,” Goldmark said. Shortly after, their newfound passion turned into a real business. In 2019, after Matson left the company, Goldmark took over and built what she called “Emi Jay 2.0.” The new and elevated brand identity is the Emi Jay we know today.
So what makes these $34 clips any different besides the price tag? Emma Remy ’24 claims that the quality of the clips is “so much better than what you can get at your local drug store or places like Shein or Amazon. She would “rather spend $34 on a clip that is good quality, hand crafted in L.A., and doesn’t come from a place with unethical labor practices, unlike many of Emi Jay’s competitors,” said Remy. “Quality and durability are the two main factors of ‘why Emi Jay,’” said Goldmark. “Making the one-time investment in a well-crafted, attractive piece is well worth the 34 dollars.”
Like any other fashion trend, the appeal of Emi Jays is also about other people wearing them. “All my friends have them, and so do a lot of the girls at Ransom Everglades. Everywhere you look, whether it is in assembly, at lunch, or even in any of my classes, there is always at least one person rocking an Emi Jay,” said Helen Ansin ’26. She bought her first clip in September and didn’t think it would go this far. Helen currently has 13—and counting—Emi Jays in her collection. Similarly, Ariya Zhuk ’24 bought an Emi Jay after they started to grow in popularity. “Once I bought one, it was like an addiction,” she said. With over 15 in her collection, her purchases have yet to stop.
The company sells a multitude of products, the most popular being the “Big Effing Clip” that was launched in 2019 and has become the face of Emi Jay. Other items include scrunchies, earmuffs, hairbrushes and pins, and the most recent addition and other latest trend: sweat sets. Zhuk said her favorite item she owns is her personalized Big Effing Clip. The color is a neutral cream with green Swarovski crystals. “This clip is simple, but the statement aspect of the crystals elevates any outfit and matches better than my other colorful or patterned ones,” Zhuk said.
The popularity of Emi Jays exploded after the brand started appearing on many of today’s A-list celebrities, such as Harry Styles, Hailey Bieber, and Bella Hadid. After seeing some of their biggest idols rocking these clips, juniors from Carrollton School of the Sacred Heart and Gulliver Prep, Kata Meyer, Alessandra Sanchez, Emma Remy, and Alexia Canto, were inspired to start the “Emi Jay Fan Club.” With over 500 followers on Instagram, these four girls have influenced hundreds of other students to purchase Emi Jay products.
“We started the fan club in hope of getting added to the PR list,” said Sanchez. Since it started, the fan club has received their own discount code. The company also donated $3000 worth of clips to the Fan Club for a fundraiser for breast cancer research. The clip sale was extremely successful: “100 clips were all sold within minutes,” said Meyer.
In December of 2022, the four girls in the Fan Club were flown out to New York City for the Emi Jay NYC Holiday Pop Up. They attended both days of the pop up and got to know the staff, experienced the behind the scenes of the sale, and even received their own personal stockings with clips, earmuffs, sweat sets, and headbands. “This was our biggest milestone as the Fan Club. Starting as four girls who just loved the brand, to getting flown out—it was a moment we will never forget,” said Canto.
The company continues to launch new marketing strategies to keep its audience engaged, including their collaboration with many popular brands including Djerf Avenue and Frankies Bikinis. Goldmark said she is passionate about “cultivating a community of amazing women” through her many pop-ups and collaborations. Goldmark said Emi Jay plans to broaden their hair care product portfolio, taking a step into hair and beauty and “furthering the Emi Jay world.”
As the Emi Jay world gets bigger, however, some RE students remain skeptical. “After seeing my friends’ clips break, the screws rust, and charms fall off, I think someone could buy a greater number of clips while remaining in a more realistic budget. For $40, the clip needs to have something else to it other than being trendy,” said Juliana Perez ’24.
