Heavily indebted retailers J. Crew Group Inc. and Claire's Stores Inc. are delving into their loan agreements to find creative ways to raise or reconfigure their debt. And creditors, who often have the most to lose, may not be able to stop them.

Take the case of preppy clothing maker J. Crew. The New York-based company is said to be seeking to take advantage of a clause in its loan agreement allowing it to shift its brand name, the crown jewel of its intellectual property, to an unrestricted entity in the Cayman Islands. By doing this, it may now be possible for J. Crew to borrow against the assets and use the proceeds to buy back a portion of its roughly $2 billion in debt at a discount.

“There may be other situations, but we haven't seen retail companies using IP assets and investment baskets like this before,” said Steven Ruggiero, head of research at R.W. Pressprich & Co. “They are taking advantage of valuable assets that haven't been optimally utilized to find new creative ways to create liquidity to extend their existence.”