Meet the Shopkeepers: Fini

Camilla Eyre and Peggy Poage at Fini with Sam, the store’s dachshund.
You have to want to find Fini, the jewelry and accessories boutique at The Inn at the Market, but it’s not a difficult task. The payoff: Inside are lots of other things you’ve been wanting to find, like bright lucite earrings, gilded bulldog statues, cozy lightweight gloves and hats, and feel-good travel accessories. Sister duo Peggy Poage and Camilla Eyre, and Sam the dachshund, keep the good times coming.
WWW: What song or album is playing on your store’s sound system right now?
Eyre: The music on heavy rotation in the store right now is Slow Runner, Jaymay, and the Velvet Underground.
What was your first job in retail? What did you love or hate about it and how does it compare to what you do now?
I worked at a small women’s clothing store called La Belle Liberte in the Hansen Baking Company building at the base of Queen Anne Hill. It was a great learning experience (as much as for what not to do, as for what to do). I started as a manager, went on to help open two other stores, and did quite a bit of the buying.
What’s your favorite thing in the store right now?
George Gina and Lucy handbags. They are a German handbag line made out of luggage material, so they are machine washable. They come in great colors, have fantastic hardware, and we can’t keep them in the store. You can see examples of the bags on our blog.
Where do you shop when you’re not at your store?
I am a small store shopper for the most part. I love Burnt Sugar and Frankie, Les Amis, Enexile, and Target.
What do you love about your store’s neighborhood? What nearby restaurants, coffee shops, etc do you recommend?
We are in the Pike Place Market area and there is such a wealth of great stuff that it’s hard to narrow it down. I Love Cafe Campagne, Marche, Matt’s in the Market, Le Pichet, Local Color, Three Girls Bakery, Maximilien, Place Pigalle, and Etta’s.
What’s the weirdest thing that’s ever happened in your store?
Well, we lived through a couple of earthquakes and the mysterious collapse of our storage unit. All weird, none of it any fun. In the wonderfully weird department, the late, great Paul Newman was a client of ours and he popped in one day to buy something and he asked me if I liked raisins. I said that I did and he produced a box of “Newman’s Own Raisins,” which will never be eaten but always treasured!