It seems like a fashion catastrophe to have two huge pop stars show up to the same event in the same dress.

And if those stars are Pink and Shakira, that event is the 2009 VMAs, and they arrived on the red carpet within minutes of each other, that might be an even bigger disaster. But on the bright side, that dress was the smoking-hot Balmain leather-and-metal number, and now we have an excuse to debate which lady wore it better.

We took the debate to the streets — more specifically to the Bryant Park tents — and asked the many experts attending New York Fashion Week to weigh in on this important face-off. “Well, they both look great,” Kendall told MTV News. “I like Shakira’s version of it; she looks cool. She just has it more accessorized, ’cause with the boots you can kind of see [that]. Although, Pink’s earrings look neat. I think [Shakira] looks cute with her hair down.”

Corey Moran also decided that the acrobatic Pink had the look in the bag. “I’m gonna have to go with Pink, only because she had stuff to bring with it,” he said of the “So What” singer. “Shakira [wore] the dress and kind of normal, almost boring hair. I think that Pink really put the whole outfit together.”

Fellow Fashion Week attendee Deandre went for the feisty She Wolf in the dress. “I’m gonna have to say Shakira. Pink is hot too, but Shakira hands down. Shakira just has this sexiness about her that is just there. She embodies what a sexy woman is,” he said. “But they both looked great, though. They both were hot.”

But Pink got a vote based on personality, too. “Pink!” asserted a fan named Brad at the tents. “Pink’s personality matched the dress — a little hard-core, heavy rocker. And Shakira, I still think she has that Latina vibe, [but] I think the dress is a little more hard-core.”