women’s boutique was just part of growing up in Shreveport for Laura Baudoin. Her mother, Martha Thomas, operated Pink Cactus and Cactus Trading Company, one of Shreveport’s first women’s stores.
“It was my mom and my aunt,” Laura said of the store. “Every afternoon I would do displays, and I would get out their Polaroid camera, and I would take pictures of them all. I went to my first market in sixth grade in Dallas. I would love to go in the summer with her.”
Martha ran the business for 13 years before she sold it and moved to Santa Fe, N.M. Years later, Martha was ready to return to Shreveport and be close to her grandchildren, but she wasn’t sure how else she would occupy her time. Laura had an idea.
“Everywhere my older brother and I went, it was like, ‘We sure do miss Mom and her store.’ So I told her, ‘Why don’t you open another store?’ Shreveport probably needs it,” Laura said. Martha told her that she was burned out on the backend operations of running a boutique. Laura, an accountant at that time, offered a solution. “I said, ‘I’ll do all that. You just go do what you love — move home and be with your grandkids.’”
And that’s how M. boutique was born in 2012 at 855 Pierremont Ave., Suite 128. M. features high-end fashions with cross-generational appeal. “My customer is me,” Laura said. “My customer is my mom. My customer is younger than me. I have a customer older than my mom. We even carry some little-bitty girl things just for fun.”
Laura believes style is ageless. What matters is how you put it together. That’s what the team at M. excels at — putting styles together for every woman who comes in. “We’re going to show you how to wear it,” Laura said. “We’re going to pay attention to what you want and try to get it there. No one’s going to give you the personal touch you get here.”
M. is open from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday. For more information, visit www.mshreveport.com.
