Last night I went to Stoli Hotel on West Street for the style battle finale of House of Deihl's Style Wars. I haven't been out to a party like this in AGES. So it was a great night out for me and I got to hang with my cousin who I rarely see these days.  I hadn't heard of the show before, so I really wasn't sure what to expect. This was part of the invite I received:

CALL IT THE "8-MILE' OF STYLE: STYLE BATTLING is fresh, accessible, pulse-racing design. Invented by House of Diehl, and inspired by MC battling and haute couture, Style Battling is a hot new art form and the next new nightlife sensation.Following a sold out 5-city tour that garnered rave reviews, STYLE WARS: The Style Battle Championship Grand Finale brings the together the winners of the New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami and Chicago regional battles to face off in the final battle for the crown.Come witness America's most inventive young designers face off in knock-out rounds of rapid design - ”working against the clock, on models, live on stage. Cut, tape, burn, drape - ”competitors innovate to dominate this runway, using recycled garments and household objects to make bold new fashions in less than 5 minutes! It's DESIGN OR DIE as the crowd and a celebrity panel of Style judges choose which battler stays in the game, and which bites the dust. House of Diehl's MJ Diehl and Roman Milisic will MC. Plus live performance and a very special guest DJ.

Sounds interesting right? The show was CRAZY! Basically two designers go head to head on stage and create an outfit on a model from materials found behind them. It's no holds barred. Bubble wrap, outdoor lighting, cutting their own clothes off to incorporate into the design - everyone was shocked to see how far these guys would go to win.The models came out in underwear and the designers got to work using the time allotted. The audience watches the outfit get put together piece by piece. It was really interesting and WILD at the same time. I took some pictures so you can see what final looks walked the runway.

In the middle of the show, we headed over to the Stoli Vanilla Room to take a break and met up with some nice people from the Soho Journal. who were also covering the event. I asked for their card as I wanted to check out their site this morning and gave them mine in return. Here is what happened next:

Them: Oh, you write for INO? I love that site.

Me: No, I am INO.

Them: This is your site?

Me: Yes

Them: OMG! Dlisted links to you and I love your site!

I should offer up Michael my first born child because whenever someone knows of my site and I happen to meet them, they always throw his name in too. ALWAYS. It's happened on the three different occasions where someone actually heard of INO. So that was good fun. We chatted about blogging for a while which I have no problem doing. I could literally talk about blogs all day.

Fast forward a few hours and now it's just me and my cousin sitting in the room. All of a sudden security comes running in, attacks a guy who manages to squirm free and run out of the VIP area (but not before spilling all the drinks on his way out). We were SHOCKED. So the next 20 minutes became "WHAT WAS THAT? WHAT HAPPENED?" After he was arrested, the bodyguards came back and told us he was doing coke in the corner and going through some people's bags.

That's when I realized that I was too old for the party and my time out had ended.  If you have the opportunity to check out Style Wars, be sure to do so. It's really a funky new way of looking at design.

Click on the thumbnails to see pictures of some of the outfits made on stage and my cousin in the Stoli Vanilla room.