A runway model charges down the catwalk wearing a long white shirt, black knee-high boots, and a purse made of fur. Her gaze is stern, emotionless. Then, all of a sudden, her purse opens and out pops the head of an antelope.
This sort of surreal story is one told by fashion GIF master Greta Larkins, the creator of the popular Tumblr FASHGIF. Over the last 17 months, Larkins has created more than 500 animations, bringing to life the most beautiful people and clothing in the world in some of the strangest ways possible.
“I’d been following a variety of Tumblrs for some time and decided I needed a theme; as I work in fashion it made sense to turn runway images into GIFs,” Larkins, 27, told the Daily Dot. “I was staring at the still images all the time for trend reports. Initially I wasn’t sure how many ideas I’d have (I honestly thought I’d run out) but they’re still coming. I guess because there are so many collections each season, the ways to GIF them are endless.”
Larkins works in Melbourne, Australia, in fashion and product development. She is a self-taught image-alterer who credits her GIFs with helping hone her trend-forecasting skills and her ability to really get into the head of a designer.
Each GIF takes about 45 minutes to make. Larkins uses Photoshop to create the surreal scenes, gently adding pixels and recreating backgrounds so “when you pull something over, there’s an appropriate image behind it,” she said.
“Sometimes I have an idea and need to find a collection or outfit that will help me execute it, but most of the time I see the clothes and BING the idea pops into my head!” she added. “Often I get a touch too ambitious (I’m limited to four frames on Tumblr—thanks to my large image sizes—to ensure they’ll move in the dashboard) so I can’t get too carried away with the animation length. No feature films!”
Larkins is unsure what the future holds for her blog. She’s thankful for the opportunity GIFs have provided her and how they’ve improved her work.
“It’s instantaneous! No hitting play, no advertising, no annoying music and the repetition really helps you to focus on the content and understand what’s happening. No rewind either! It’s a very clear way to get a simple message across.”
GIFs via FASHGIF
