Lydia Smith Turns Thrift Shopping Fabulous

Lydia Smith’s First Foray into Consignment Retail is Très Chic

For Alabama-born Lydia Smith, opening her own shop was one of those “glimmers of a goal” that was probably always in the bag, so to speak.

In 2002, fresh from college with a degree in fashion, merchandising and design from Auburn University, Smith landed an internship with Marcia Chouinard, who was then director of retail for Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort. Smith soon was hired on to join a core team that opened several new retail concepts in The Village of Baytowne Wharf and The Market Shops at Sandestin before venturing off the resort to open Gear for Sports in Silver Sands Premium Outlets and Barefoot Princess, a signature Lily Pulitzer store, in WaterColor.

“Everything was booming, and Sandestin was rocking and rolling,” she says. “It was such a great experience, from learning to open a store from the ground up to buying and merchandising. I gained a lot of valuable experience that you really can’t learn in college classroom.”

Smith’s low-key personality made her well suited to manage the “high drama” of the Sandestin Salon, which she added on top of her retail duties. Her unflappable leadership style invited still more responsibility, and soon she was asked to also manage the Sandestin Fitness Center, where she still teaches cycling two days a week. What was supposed to be a “temporary fix” stretched into eight years. During her 10-year tenure at Sandestin, Smith stockpiled a host of skills she would put to good use beginning in 2012, when she left the resort to “take control” of her career direction.

After entertaining several different ideas and canvasing the market, the 35-year-old challenge seeker created a 10,000-square-foot resale shop located on Emerald Coast Parkway in Miramar Beach that has the ambiance of a specialty boutique. She named it Brocante, a French word for a second hand market.. The two-story shop is a maze of nooks staged with a mix of home furnishings, lighting, collectibles, art, vintage clothing, jewelry and keepsake treasures of all kinds. Just a year after Brocante opened, Smith expanded to a second location called Lola’s in Blue Mountain Beach on 30A, which she recently sold.

Lydia Smith pictured at Brocante in Miramar Beach with her faithful friend and muse, Lola.

Matt Burke

Emerald Coast Magazine recently took a seat on a sofa at Brocante with two beautiful brown-eyed beauties — Smith and Lola (Smith’s 2-year-old poodle-Wheaten terrier mix for which the 30A shop is named) — surrounded by antique treasures to hear firsthand how her second-hand business came to be.

EC: You started at Sandestin as an intern, and after 10 years you opened your own business. Sounds like you were well prepared.

LS: You learn so much in every stage of your life. I truly believe each experience is preparing you for something else. I received so much knowledge from great mentors, like Marcia Chouinard, and different members of the management and executive team. I was able to carry that into what I wanted to do next.

EC: How did your 10 years in spa and retail operations at Sandestin translate to opening your own business?

LS: The spa was such an employee-driven managerial job. I learned a lot of lessons in managing 25 employees. It was also very guest service oriented as well. Retail was more about the merchandise, which gave me a lot of experience for what I’m doing now — merchandising the floor, making aesthetically pleasing spaces, appealing to customers by giving them a visual of what things can be.

EC: What do you most enjoy about retail?

LS: My favorite thing is to have a vision, build it, open it and see the vision carried through.

EC: Why did a resale concept appeal to you?

LS: I didn’t want to go into debt opening the store. I thought resale would be a fairly safe business model without having to pay for any inventory.

EC: What kind of business model do your shops have?

LS: Resale is a big business in this area. I didn’t want to do exactly the same thing that had been done before, so Brocante is a hybrid between consignment boutique and a vendor mall. It just brings in so much variety to the store. I’ve got 35 vendors (each rents display space and shares 50 percent of sales), so it’s 35 creative minds coming together, and each brings something to the table that I could never do by myself.

EC: How did you attract vendors?

LS: This area is kind of a mecca for creative, artsy people. And this building is just so conducive to what the business model is, just the whole feel of it. And the goal for Brocante was to be eclectic in order to cater to everyone. I put signs up in the windows; this is such a high-traffic area. And I did some marketing on Craigslist, because people in this business are on Craigslist. But really, I think this building, this location with its history (it was Pottager’s, Sandcastles, Sandcastle and Sugar Beach), I think it’s a building people watch and follow.

EC: What does Brocante offer?

LS: It has something for all tastes — from antiques, coastal, traditional, total fixer-upper repurpose pieces for projects, new pieces, and then we’ve got high-end pieces. Anyone can come in here and find a style that they like. It truly is such a great way to shop. You’re going to get one-of-a-kind pieces at a bargain. Pieces that have character. Things you are not going to walk into a new-furniture showroom and see.

EC: Is it priced as marked, or do you invite some haggling?

LS: We do a lot of wheeling and dealing. That said, we do have standards, and when it’s a vendor’s item, we leave it to them to make that call. With consignment, it’s about time; the longer something’s been here, the more leeway we have.

EC: Resale seems to be quite a dynamic business.

LS: Yes. Brocante and Lola’s are the types of places you should come to every week. We get merchandise every day. It’s important to me to keep the floor fresh, so I change it around constantly. I think some people are hesitant to come in a lot, but that’s what we love. We want to have repeat business and build relationships with them.

EC: What is hot and what is not in resale?

LS: We have a ton of traffic here in this location. The best items go right away. This is a resort condo market, so sleeper sofas and beds are popular. Armoires are done; it’s console tables now. And then we’ve got a great local market that is always on the lookout for unique pieces. I just love calling customers and telling them I have found what they have been looking for.

EC: You have vendors but you also have Brocante-tagged merchandise. Where do you get your inventory?

LS: It’s a relationship business. Ten people a day can pull up wanting us to sell their furniture. Or we’ll get a call from someone who is redecorating and wanting to sell everything, and so I’ll go to their house and select items we can sell.

EC: To what do you attribute Brocante’s success?

LS: It’s ever-changing. And it’s like everything in life — having good people around you. It’s a good environment. My time is important; you work so hard, you want to play and have a life, and I don’t want to waste a second.

EC: Since your free time is precious, how do you like to fill it?

LS: I love working out. It is important to me and is something I do for myself. I teach cycling, run and I like lifting weights, too. One thing I’ve gotten better about is enjoying where we live. On these perfect days, I try to take time, go to the beach or have a relaxing lunch with a nice view and spend quality time with people I care about.

EC: What is your home design style?

LS: I have changed my style probably three times in the past year. I went from a white Victorian sofa to a turquoise, very coastal sofa, and now I have a slipcovered Restoration Hardware look. Right now I’m into an eclectic coastal look. I have hide rugs, jute rugs, rusted iron and a little bit of glam in there, too.

EC: What does the future hold for you?

LS: I would like to grow some more. I opened Lola’s because I love that building. I love building and visualizing and creating a space. That is so fulfilling to me. I would like to open a store where I am from and have the opportunity to spend more time with my family.