Alexandria Designer Creates Royal Wedding Gown Knock-Off

Anyone passing by Le Star, a bridal boutique in Old Town Alexandria, might notice something familiar about a dress taking center stage in the shop's window. It's a dress that is a replica of the gown worn last Friday by bride Kate Middleton, now Duchess of Cambridge after marrying Prince William. 

Alexandria dress designer and seamstress Angel Le, who works at Le Star, whipped up the $1,500 creation over the weekend. Le, a native of Vietnam, is the mother of four children and has worked as a seamstress and dress designer for 34 years.

"After I watched the wedding on TV on Friday, I created the dress and finished it yesterday," she said on Sunday afternoon. She completed the lace and off-white Italian satin dress by 1 p.m. last Saturday, just a little more than 24 hours from the time the dress was first seen by the general public.

The dress worn by Middleton, designed by Sarah Burton, creative director at Alexander McQueen, was one of the few surprises that royal-watchers anxiously awaited on Friday. It was first glimpsed Friday morning by crowds in London and those watching the wedding on TV when she stepped out of a limousine at Westminster Abbey, where she married Prince William in a ceremony reportedly watched by two billion viewers worldwide.

Le made one tweak to the royal gown design, adding a "mermaid" skirt rather than the fuller ballgown skirt and train worn by Kate Middleton. "Brides ask for a skirt like this [the mermaid fit]," she noted. It usually takes Le three to six months to complete a custom wedding gown.