Dossier

The Fourth of July is about more than just barbecues, fireworks and baseball games. It's about independence! Beating the system, forging your own path, etc., etc. So we thought, what better time to highlight some of our favorite independent fashion magazines who are doing just that.

A new issue of Dossier, one of our favorite glossies (and How I'm Making It panelists), drops this week and from what we've seen, it will be a good one. Yoko Ono follows Andrej Pejic as the latest Dossier cover star. Issue 8 features contributions from her as well as Kiki Smith, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Michael Stipe, Stevie Nicks, George Saunders, Robert Longo, Tom Sachs, Cyprien Gallard, Aimee Mullins, Nate Lowman, Devendra Banhart, Sloane Crosley, Olympia Le-Tan and AF Vandevorst, to name a few. The ladies at Dossier were nice enough to send us an exclusive preview featuring one of our favorite models, Australian beauty Bambi Northwood-Blyth, shot by Dan Martensen. She does that whole rough around the edges, but still insanely gorgeous thing in a way that we'll never be able to replicate. Click through to check it out!

For the second time, designer Araks Yeramyan asked a bunch of industry creatives to collaborate on her look book. Each person selected an outfit from the line, styling and photographing it as they saw fit. Guest stars for Fall 2011 include model Coco Young, director Gia Coppola, designer Richard Chai and blogger Susie Bubble, amongst seven others. Despite the mishmash of personalities, the result is cohesive: the book conveys an off-the-cuff, dreamy feel.

Androgynous model Andrej Pejic is often mistaken for a girl, but this week Barnes & Noble and Borders went so far as to censor his topless Dossier cover like they would a nudie mag, reports Jezebel. Why? Because although the stores' regulators understood that he was indeed a man, not a naked woman, they are concerned that some customers might be confused.

Last night, a panel of fashion industry insiders gathered for the second installment of our "How I'm Making It" series at NYU's Cantor Film Center. The panelists, from all corners of the fashion world, included fashion designer Chris Benz, runway producer Gayle Dizon, PR powerhouse Cindy Krupp, and Katherine Krause and Skye Parrott, editor and creative directer of Dossier Magazine. Whether you're an intern just entering the fashion industry or an entrepreneur building a company, here's what you need to know in case you missed it.

Dossier Journal's latest issue, No. 7, hits newsstands this week. It's jam packed with contributions from writers including Dan Savage and Miranda July, photographers like Francesco Carrozzini, and Lachlan Bailey, and stylists like Kate Lanphear and Alastair McKimm. And that's just to name a few. The girls behind the biannual arts and culture journal, editor Katherine Krause and creative director Skye Parrott (both of whom will be speaking at our May 9 "How I'm Making It" panel--wink, wink sign up here), have given us an exclusive look at the complete editorial featuring androgynous model Andrej Pejic, photographed by Collier Schorr. Take a look.