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French-born and Senegal-bred, Tessan owner Aissatou Minthe named her boutique of new and vintage items after her mother’s native village when she opened the store in 2006. True to Minthe’s globe-trotting roots, the tiny basement shop is stocked with fashions from Paris to Dakar and beyond. Whenever Minthe travels, she brings back an item or two to sell, and the resulting collection is an idiosyncratic mélange of regional goods like Cambodian silk scarves, Ghanaian grass-woven bags, and Moroccan pointed-toe babouche slippers. A number of local threads also run through the inventory: floral-patterned dresses, turquoise earrings, and volcanic-rock necklaces, all produced in the Brooklyn area. For her vintage collection, Minthe trolls local markets every weekend, keeping an eye out for hard-to-find items that her customers request. — Alex Littlefield