Was Beyoncé the inspiration for Kim Kardashian's sheer Roberto Cavalli dress Monday night at the Met Gala? Or was it Cher? Or perhaps Kardashian's "idol," JLo?
The answer, according to spectators and speculators online, is clearly Beyoncé. It's always Beyoncé.
You see, there's only room at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute Gala for one curvaceous superstar who happens to be married to a world-famous rapper. There can be no two.
The roots of a Beyoncé vs. Kim Kardashian "feud" date back years, and the rumours have stubbornly persisted despite attempts by both parties to diffuse them.
Simply put, from the time Beyoncé and Kardashian entered each others' orbits in 2012, there were only two choices: They could either be the best of friends or mortal enemies.
And so at Monday's Met Gala, when Kardashian donned a frock (which was squarely in the increasingly popular trend of barely there peek-a-boo gowns), it immediately brought to mind the black lace Givenchy dress Beyoncé wore to the Met Gala in 2012. (This year, Beyoncé also chose a sheer Givenchy gown for her big moment.)
According to Kardashian, she was actually inspired by the Bob Mackie bodysuit Cher wore to the Met in 1974.
"Tonight's inspiration!" she wrote. "Cher at the 1st ever Met Gala! I just met her and told her this photo was my inspiration for my dress tonight! She is so beautiful! So happy I met her!"
Kardashian's explanation — which came a couple of hours after people began to point out similarities between her dress and Beyoncé's — will no doubt serve as fuel for the raging rumors.
All things considered, though, her fashion statement probably had as much in common with Jennifer Lopez, who wore a sheer, red Donatella Versace gown on Monday night. Kardashian referred to JLo as "my idol."
Over the years, the Beyoncé-Kardashian chatter has become tedious and predictable. But it's also proven that as their fame has grown, so has the allure of this particular rivalry.
Kardashian, whose celebrity is inextricably linked to her willingness to bring the voyeuristic public into the minute details of her personal life, gets it.
"I have no idea where these things come from. ... I think they like to make up these feuds. It's more interesting," Kardashian mused to MTV in 2013.
As the Daily Mail noted in February, Beyoncé appeared to brush aside the feud rumours by posting an Instagram photo with Kardashian and "beautiful princess North."
That same month, according to Time, Kardashian's husband, Kanye West, told a radio interviewer that Beyoncé takes inspiration from his wife.
He added that the two women love and respect each other, and have a relationship with a "LeBron James-Kobe (Bryant) element to it."
WASHINGTON POST-BLOOMBERG