What type of piping is on the cake and could I just use a crimper?

I can't tell for sure with that picture, but maybe it is garland? Garland is piped with a tip 104 in a zigzag motion over a curved line with a 16 zig zag on top of it. Or you can use the 86, which does both.

looking at it enlarged, it looks like it could be a leaf tip (68-70) double-ruffle garland with accented color (beading maybe) run down the center. Look closely at the two in the front ...looks to me like it's ruffled both on the inside and outside of the garland

could I get away with crimping?

hmmmmm....You could crimp a garland design(that is, crimp in connecting semi-circles), I'm not so familiar with crimpers that I know of one that would give the ruffled effect.

One can crimp, attach ruffled fondant along the curves for a similar effect or just the ruffled fondant in a scalloped design would give you a similar effect...

See the top edge of this cake...it's done with tip 70 and buttercream...if you do the same motion but in a garland pattern, you'd get the design on the cake you shared

http://www.wilton.com/ims/image.cfm?id=CB874433-C048-B01D-2E83F83EEC3AF768&view=large

I'm still looking for examples with a crimper

or a crimper and attach lace points ...

use of a crimper would give you a flatter design that what's in that picture...those are definitely raised ruffles.

If you were to use the crimper...

where would you want to use it and how would you figure to get the raised ruffles?

Firstly, the picture is so blurry that I couldn't tell what is was. I thought I would be able to create a similar design with a crimper (but not raised).

I didn't mean to be offensive...

I was only trying to get a better idea of what you were looking to do.

I know I've seen crimper effects...locating the images that I'm thinking of, (close-ups) to see if they're something you might consider similar to what you had in mind is proving to be trickier than I thought....

http://www.intotheoven.com/images/sz-ffdvdext-large-1.jpg

Not the image I was thinking of but..
see the smaller one in the back, left...the smaller one?

if a small one were used...and the image I recall somehow crimped the fondant tightly to cause a bead to form but then they allowed it to open fully on the soft fondant causing not really a ruffle but similar to the effect of using the shell tool...

http://www.bakingshop.com/cakes/_art/ft878.jpg (fourth one down, left end)

( I really didn't know you weren't able to see the ruffles and was stumped by how to achieve raised ruffles with a crimper. You cleared things up. again, I apologize if I offended you in any way)

That's a really common American style of wedding cake from the 80's and 90's. I think maybe the confusion here is that those cakes were never covered with fondant, it was always a buttercream finish, so it's hard for us to imagine it covered with fondant. It probably wouldn't be too complicated to pipe, you would just want to mark the curves on the sides and then pipe a design over the marks, then pipe another row above that.

Here's an example of a slightly raised effect with a crimper: http://www.debbiebrownscakes.co.uk/50_easy_party_cakes/pages/dressing_up_jpg.htm

The reason I remembered it was because I wanted to make it for my daughter but couldn't find a crimper anywhere locally.

It would probably be more easier with fondant as I could press the crimper on it while its still fresh, then stick frills underneath?