But that hasn't stopped dozens of bridal houses from marshaling reserves of sketch artists, pattern makers, lace manufacturers, cutters and embroiderers, all standing ready to make last-minute tweaks to existing gowns, or to copy the royal gown outright, funneling imitations into the market at warp speed.
Longfellow's poem had great success in its day, and its metre proved catchy and easily imitated, but every imitation turned into parody.
For the head, Stuart makes a plaster mold, presses a thin layer of clay into it, and then presses a prefabricated skull of imitation bone into the clay.
But will a shrimp-obsessed nation be likely to welcome imitation shellfish into their homes?
Chelmsford Crown Court was told today that Alexander had admitted possessing firearms and ammunition with intent to endanger life, converting imitation firearms into real firearms, buying and selling prohibited ammunition and money laundering.
Gaz Corfield, a target shooter and blogger, raised concerns about the commission's provisional proposal that it should be an offence to possess articles with the intention of using them unlawfully to convert imitation firearms into live firearms.
He points out that this intention could be proved merely if "an individual was in possession of articles and instructions on how to convert imitation firearms into live firearms".
In some notable cases, imitation morphs into mimicry and simultaneously, flattery yields to full-scale admiration.
Virgin Digital was a two-year old Windows Media-based alternative to Apple's iTunes, but it stopped selling one-off downloads last week and next month their songs will no longer be playable, thanks to DRM imitations built into each track.
As factory-made, Chinese imitations flooded into souvenir shops near Gwanghwamun in downtown Seoul, the authentic dolls grew harder to find.
