Cosplay Inspirations: V&A Hollywood Camera App

I think by now it can be considered that the V&A Hollywood Costume exhibition is a big hit.

Now, I can't speak from personal experience as I have still yet to go (I'm hoping to sneak a visit after I've submitted my thesis) but everyone I know that's has been says it is an excellent exhibition.

Anywho, my mum went around a month ago and she came back with an app for me.

The V&A Hollywood Camera is a little bit of fluff that allows you to 'wear' various costumes from the exhibit. The style of the app is a camera screen that you can shoot or upload photographs to and then superimpose the costumes over the top of the photo (the interface isn't unlike Instagram to be honest). The costumes are fully re-sizable and can be rotated, which is great, however they can't be turned on their axis meaning that all photographs used must be taken straight on.

This is okay if you are posing for pictures directly, but if you thought you'd like to Hollywood-ise all your Facebook pictures this probably isn't the app for you.

I had lots of fun Hollywood-ising photos for my blog but the results varied enormously and in the end the best shots came from a photo that was simply posed against a plain background. Unfortunately this sort of detracts from the fun a little.

Having said that I have wanted to know how I would look in Keira Knightly's Anna Karenina outfit for some time - and now I know!

The selection of costumes is split between male and female so you can equally Hollywood-ise brothers, sisters, husbands or mothers - you know they'd love to dress as Heath Ledger from Brokeback Mountain!

I tried putting a Blues Brothers outfit over Mr Fancy but I'm not sure he was too pleased with the results...

Tree are 17 costumes to choose from and each costume has a little bit of info to tell you about the costumes origin and who wore it too.

Maria 'Angel' Barker - Angel & Karen - Out of Africa

Queen Elizabeth I - Elizabeth: the Golden Age & Pu Yi - The Last Emperor

Judy Barton - Vertigo & Viola - Shakespeare in Love

To be honest there is a lot of scope for this app to be regularly updated with new costumes from the exhibit but I don't get the impression that will happen. At 69p it's not bad value and its something you can play with with almost every new person you meet and as far as souvenirs go, 69p is exceptionally cheap.

There are a few things that could make this app a bit more versatile but for the price it's okay, a bit of photoshopping will help an awful lot too! It makes for nice easy costume pictures which always makes me happy!

Did you make it to the V&A Hollywood Costume Exhibition? If so what did you think?