Inside Look: Rosalie’s Boutique expands Baton Rouge thrift scene with upscale resale

Snazzy wallets. Blinged gowns. Stylish shorts to wear to concerts and festivals. Scoring that next discount designer find just got a little easier with the recent opening of Rosalie’s Boutique, a resale spot created by St. Vincent de Paul of Baton Rouge.

Open in May, the Government Street store sells vintage and gently used men’s and women’s fashion, accessories, housewares, art and other items.

The project was the brainchild of St. Vincent de Paul of Baton Rouge president and CEO Sunnie Johnson-Lain, who saw an opportunity to add a thrift boutique to the charity’s portfolio of secondhand stores. St. Vincent de Paul currently operates three traditional thrift outlets that sell donated items and is opening a fourth store this weekend on Greenwell Springs Road, an 8,500-square-foot space that will serve as an outreach center, school uniform store, Santa Shop and distribution center.

While there will always be a market for thrift stores, Johnson-Lain says there was room for a thrift boutique stocked with higher-value goods. She says opening such a store had been a personal goal since her tenure as the chief services and strategy officer for St. Vincent de Paul-Cincinnati. Johnson-Lain has had a lengthy career with faith-based charities. Until taking the helm of St. Vincent de Paul of Baton Rouge one year ago, she served as president and CEO of Catholic Social Services of Washtenaw County in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

“Having a boutique is something I’ve always wanted to do,” she says. “What you see here has lived in my brain for a long time.”

St. Vincent de Paul receives steady donations of clothing and household items from the region’s many Catholic church parishioners and others cleaning out their closets. Some of those donations should be diverted to a resale boutique, Johnson-Lain says.

She proves the point with a story. About six months ago, Johnson-Lain spotted a designer belt in a St. Vincent de Paul Baton Rouge thrift store accessories case. Its familiar brand mark told her the belt retailed for around $1,000, but it was priced at just $4. The belt was a steal for a savvy thrifter, but it was a lost opportunity for the social services nonprofit, she says.

“People donate really special things to St. Vincent de Paul, and we want to honor those gifts and steward them in a way that they’re maximizing what we’re raising from them,” Johnson-Lain says. “All of our profits go back into our services.”

Mid City was the ideal location for the concept, she says. Rosalie’s is situated at the east end of Government Street and is minutes from other vintage and antique stores along the thoroughfare, including Time Warp Boutique, Good Choices Co., The Pink Elephant Antiques and Aladdin’s Lamp Antiques.

Johnson-Lain says she had a clear vision of Rosalie’s interior design. Cosmetic updates to what was once a dive shop helped turn the space into a welcoming “jewel-box,” outfitted in soft hues and stylish fixtures sourced from Facebook Marketplace. The main room’s ceiling is painted baby pink. Its spacious floor holds easy-to-assess waterfall racks rather than tightly crammed clothing rods. The goal is not to dig for needle-in-a-haystack finds; it’s to take in the store’s inventory, already curated by staff members who spend two days a week picking through donations. Items are generally priced at about one-third of retail.

Women’s wear dominates the store. Jewelry, purses and other items are located in a separate accessories room. Housewares, artwork and Catholic gifts get their own quarters toward the back. And a “Man Cave” is situated off the main area with men’s clothing, sports memorabilia and a comfy chair for “bored husbands,” Johnson-Lain says.

The store’s name was inspired by the French Daughters of Charity nun Blessed Rosalie Rendu, one of the founders of the St. Vincent de Paul Society in Paris in 1833.

Rosalie’s Boutique is located at 5555 Government St. and is currently open on Fridays through Sundays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Johnson-Lain says those hours will expand to Wednesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. by the end of June. Parking is located in the back. For more information, visit St. Vincent de Paul of Baton Rouge’s website.