Eau Claire’s newest vintage store,  FIO,  is located next to Mona Lisa’s on Water Street. 

Short for “Figure it Out,” FIO recently opened in October and has been growing ever since. The store was the idea of friends Lisa Aspenson and Cindi Kelly.

Kelly said the store’s name reflected the women’s experience opening the shop — they weren’t sure how it would work, but they would figure it out.

The store came up as an idea because Kelly and Aspenson had been successful selling at the annual Water Street junk sale. Both women are collectors said they thought it would be worth it to open a storefront.

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The store expands into an open space in Mona Lisa’s, so customers there can shop while they are dining or having a drink. The space has chairs and sitting spaces which make it useful for hanging out as well as shopping.

While Aspenson collects more antiques and vintage items, Kelly collects more clothes and some items like lamps. She sources a lot of her items from studios in LA since she lived there for several years.

Included in the collection are items from the 60s to early 2000s with clothing of all styles, covering styles including preppy, western, formal and punk. 

Kelly said she has noticed the recent popularity of vintage shopping. She said it is a mix of people wanting unique styles and noticing the higher quality of vintage clothing. 

“Vintage fabrics are higher quality. For example, the thread count is much higher than things made now,” Kelly said. “Genuine leather is harder to come across these days too.”

Kelly said many of her pieces are unique in terms of style or material, such as velvet jackets or hand-altered pieces.

“There’s nothing like having that one one-of-a-kind piece that you own,” Kelly said. “Vintage clothes are also great talking pieces.”

Besides clothes, there are also many accessory pieces, items like antique cameras or decorations, writing desks and giant sculptures.

Along with what Kelly and Aspenson have in-store already, they have many more pieces that will be added to the store and are continuing to expand the business.

The women are working on adding a fitting room to the store and opening up a bar on one end of the store. They also plan to extend hours as the weather gets warmer. 

Currently, the hours are 5-9 p.m. Wednesday through Friday and 1-9 p.m. on Saturday, but they will be starting to open this week at 3 p.m. and eventually 1 p.m. in summer. 

Kelly said she has seen students start to come in after passing by on Water Street, but she hopes there is more student traffic to the store. 

Sonnek can be reached at sonnekrl6881@uwec.edu.