Lets have a little chin wag...

Running up to the completion of Dictation Manipulation's first quarter, I thought it would be rather nice for us all to find out where we're all from... Oooooh and look at this clever little map I found! Yes that's us - all over five countries in two continents: USA, UK, Germany, Sweden and Romania. Isn't it thrilling!


During this time we've been looking a selection of different takes and opinions on the fashion industry, little idiosyncrasies within it and the wheels and cogs keeping the whole machine running... We've been interviewing Ella and Kate, collaborating with FUTV (A lot more to come!) and attempting to spark many a debate with the odd controversial quote!

What I'd like find out, if you would kind enough to oblige (Thank-you, Please) is a little bit about all of you!

Please drop me a line at dictationmanipulation@gmail.com, giving me a little bit of news about you: First Name, Where you are from, profession, age and interests...

Dictation Manipulation earwigs on... Ella & Kate

So whats it all about...

So, researching into the evolution of fashion from inspiration to sales got me a little bit down... and I thought you all should know about it. This is a project based on wit, intelligence and humour for the educated consumer.



After spending some time researching current trends in the hope of inspiration towards trends for 08/09, it struck me how repulsive the entire trends system is… the industry gets to dictate to the entire world what they will wear at any given time. Sickening!



And this is not just with regard to those of us who attempt to follow and keep up with the ever changing ‘fast-fashions’ but everyone who steps onto their local high street.



‘I don’t really like hipster trousers, I don’t think they suit me… but that’s all you can get these days, so that’s what I have to wear.’
– Overheard at a party.

What is even more disgusting about this dictation, I feel, is that it comes from such a small amount of people, and us, the masses, just eat up every morsel of information that they give us…



… because we’re all so insecure, requiring constant reassurance and feel that that’s exactly what that ‘IT’ bag, or new pair of ‘on trend’ shoes are going to do for us. Buying that dress that is featured in this month’s Vogue is going to make us better people, more professional, help us get that guy, get us a pay rise… somehow transform us!? – there are so many more important things in life that we don’t put half as much emphasis on!

Consumers are becoming more intelligent, a lot more savy, and we know when we are being tricked by brands. I think we are going to start seeing through trends, designers and the fashion industry in general – A trend of Anti-Fashion! People will begin to buy into quality and boycott the seasonal trends…


‘If everybody looked the same… We’d get tired of looking at each other…’
[Groove Armada]



So who else agrees with me? Well, SilverScreenPipeDreams certainly does:

‘I recognise that the way we look is important to how people perceive us, but I don’t want to be beholden to a code that dictates what I can and can not wear.’

‘Women are so often told what we can and can’t wear in this world, and we soak it up, we’re so certain that we must be doing something wrong, our hair out of style, the wrong dress, why else wouldn’t we have the life we are shown in the advertisements? We let these depictions of life define our roles for us, telling us we should be sexy and also virginal, and smart and also a great mother and stylish and put together, but also free to be ourselves that it’s no wonder some people drop out of the race altogether, or some like Britney Spears, go insane.’



Vivienne Westwood looks into the future and here’s what’s in her minds eye:

‘If you ask me what I think people should be getting next season… I’ll tell you what I’d like them to buy – nothing. I’d like people to stop buying and buying and buying.’

‘With so much fast fashion available to us, we are not giving ourselves the opportunity to develop good taste.’

Brand History

As regards to attaching this venture to a brand... my immediate thought was with the educated consumer, the witty, satirical intellectual, who can appreciate the work that the fashion industry does, but looks at it from an intelligent perspective and can point out its many flaws. This is a consumer, directly in line with the Guardian reader and hence the partnership.


The Guardian is the only full-colour National Daily newspaper in the UK, it is (in their words) 'the most modern and vibrant newspaper in the country'. It is a modern, progressive and exciting journalistic study. Innovative,The Guardian actively encourages debate and exerts influence.

They position themselves as having a 'fresh approach, individual and sometimes unconventional' style. Healthily sceptical, but not cynical, The Guardian is confident, intelligent and investigative.

Ok so here's the facts:

1821 – Saturday 5th May: Manchester Guardian launched as a weekly paper.

1959 – Title changed to ‘The Guardian’ to reflect the paper’s national and international coverage.

1999 – Guardian Unlimited launched.

Speaking of the Guardian Unlimited, it's the UK's largest online newspaper for the intellectual, discerning (read: sharp, astute, shrewd, perceptive, sensitive) user. Providing features with humour, irreverence and intelligent comment.

And this is what they think of themselves: ' Guardian Unlimited has a gift for capturing the Zeigeist, providing topical content.'

And for all of your out there just wondering about that 'Zeitgeist' word (Zeit = Time , Geist = spirit or ghost) - the spirit of the time… trend of thought and feeling in a period…the thinking of the time…

End User

The Future Laboratory identified our Guardian consumer market in their Spring Trend Briefing Dossier 2006, they called them 'Generation Jones':


Better determined by the ways that they think than by traditional gauges of classes, income and ethnicity… they share neither the sense of tradition, community, idealism or the general trust of government that the Baby Boomers had, nor the cynicism or me-me-me ethos of Generation X. Above all they are practical, seeking the best deals and less fixed in their opinions than others. They give equal value to their finances and a meaningful life philosophy.

Generation Jones' thinking has shifted from ‘everything is crap’ to ‘everything is crap but it doesn’t have to be that way’… it believes in the possibility of change…

These are the group that were the first students to graduate, but with no guarantee of jobs, brought up to believe they could have it all before abruptly discovering that they couldn’t… they are affluent but unsatisfied with that ‘now or never’ attitude. Their ironic, sarcastic (rather than edgy) humour requires a suitable tone.

Jonesers appreciate high production values, style, design and technology, but they have well honed bullshit detectors… they want honesty. Jonesers firmly believe ‘they deserve it’ and expect brands to deliver. These are the demographic who work long hours, have delayed marriages, and may have school aged children and aging parents who need care. In this sense, they crave simplicity. (The average age of marriage in the UK is now 29, with first mortgages taken out at 34…)

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Anterior:Insight also pin-points our target market in their dossier, The Future of Luxury (Volume One) describing them as,

‘… collectors and critics, archivists and connoisseurs, experts and opinionated.’

Their luxury directive is about using money to pursue intellectual and cultural passions as opposed to flaunting wealth.

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VIEWPOINT #21 PRESENTS THE ‘THIRTYFIVEUP’ DEMOGRAPHIC:

Less cynical about the notion of family, ThirtyFiveUps might still wear the current ‘The’ band t-shirt – The Kills, The Strokes etc… they also count both pension and Playstation amoung their expenditure - an interesting mix, I find. They like the internet and notions of being connected, using their loose social networks to sort out tickets, difficult-to-obtain brands and hard-to-find vinyl covers. These are the people who place words such as ‘family’, ‘real’, ‘friends, ‘ simple’ and ‘authentic’ of high value, leaving ‘synthetic’, ‘fashionable’ and ‘hectic’ at the bottom of the pile.

The result of our always-on, always-connected lifestyle is that it’s easier to stay in the loop and indulge a variety of interests (downloading music, watching videos, reading blogs etc.) yet still keeping up with current affairs, mortgage payments and grocery shopping.

This group is disillusioned by our current consumer society, fast fashion, fast retail, continuous re-buy and have a strong refusal to leave behind the time when penny chews still cost a penny…

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Our female consumer was also profiled by The Future Laboratory, albeit in their Spring 2005 Dossier, and they’ve called her Heidi – Highly Educated, Independent, Degree-carrying Individual


Heidi’s have achieved great things at school and college, are confident behind the wheel, and have progressed very nicely, thanks, in their career.

Heidi is university educated, with an average income of £25K. It’s more than likely that she is single as she’s having far too much fun spending her money to get hitched. She’s sexually confident, go-getting, career-driven and flirtatious… she’s the opinionated, decision maker.