In an era where everything is online – shops, magazines, music, relationships – Dossier might be seen as innovative. The bi-annual arts and culture journal, which features fashion, photography, creative writing, art, music, and culinary pursuits, is – get this – a print journal. Yeah. You can hold it in your hand and read it on the subway. You can tear pictures out and put it on your wall, grade-school-style. So when the owners of Dossier wanted to open a shop, did they do it online? Nope; they opened up a real, browse-able store, with four walls and a roof, in Fort Greene, Brooklyn.

Dossier means file in French, but to file this shop (or the journal) into any one category is an exercice dans la futilité. The shop trades in fashion, art, literature, and design, generally items from small designers or hard-to-find vintage stuff from the bigger names. "We didn't want everything to feel disposable," says Skye Parrott, one of the three founders of the shop (along with Katherine Krause and Molly McIver; Parrott and Krause are, respectively, Creative Director and Editorial Director of the journal.) "We wanted every single thing to feel special."

Expect to find clothing from APC, In God We Trust, Bless, and Samantha Pleet; jewelry from Pamela Love, Anna Sheffield, and Digby and Iona; carefully chosen high-end vintage from big name designers; art from David Armstrong and Alexander Calder; artist books, literary journals, chapbooks, hard-to find magazines, and books from small presses (often of books with less than 200 copies in print;) and odd, unclassifiable items like vintage corkscrews, and handmade stationary: "Things you can find in other places," Parrott points out, "but to bring them together in one place is unusual." There's a plan in the works to get artists to design temporary tattoos. "We want thing that a lot of care has gone into," Parrott says. Tote bags emblazoned with Dossier have been designed by Zac Posen, Fanny Bostrom and Hisham Bharoocha, among others. (Tote bags are the new t-shirts.)

The space includes a backyard, and the shop could be transformed into a temporary art exhibit, Parrott suggests, or they could let someone curate the shop for a month. "Part of our concept is that the space can be changing," Parrott says. - J.A.

Dossier, 244 DeKalb Avenue (between Vanderbilt and Clermont Avenues), Fort Greene, Brooklyn, NY.
(718) 783-0783.