Surrounded by screaming and catty fashion enthusiasts, designers Kayo and Gray look at each other with ferocious eyes then down to the pile of random sports equipment at the foot of the stage. As if perched to attack a prey, the designers wait for Mary Jo's signal. "Ready, set, STYLE!" she exclaims with enough energy to power the building. With that, the two competing designers dive headfirst into the pile, grabbing as much equipment as they possibly can. This is no game; this is war. This is Style Wars.

Developed not for the faint of heart, Style Wars is the brainchild of House of Diehl designers Mary Jo Diehl and Roman Milišić. Traveling to America's most stylish cities including New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, the Style Wars 2009 Style Battle Championship Tour aims to find the best undiscovered talent in the country, bringing together the most innovative, fearless, and courageous designers from all over, stretching their limits like a fat man wearing Spandex, and testing their fashion design skills to the max.

In a competition where the only rule is time, the designers are expected to construct a full outfit with vintage clothing and assorted materials in only four-and-a-half minutes. The winning designer receives cold hard cash and an invitation to participate in the Grand Finale in New York City. Not only is Style Wars an opportunity for fresh and new designers to prove they have the right stuff for fashion's fast-paced industry, style battling creates a new approach to fashion, promoting and encouraging the possibilities of recycled and eco-friendly design.

"The idea is to transform the insane or the unusual or the unglamorous to something quite glamorous and beautiful, and ultimately, fashion," Diehl says.

Dancing to an electronic remix of Daft Punk's "Technologic," Diehl and Milišic circle around a lively model on stage of one of San Francisco's premiere night clubs. Each of them holding a pair of scissors and a black umbrella, they look at each other, nod their heads, and tear the model's tank top off of her. Diehl violently opens her umbrella, cuts a hole on top, and forces the model through the newly made opening, creating a very full skirt. Simultaneously, Milišic places his umbrella upside down onto the model's torso, cutting holes on the side for her arms to fit through. Using duct tape to connect the two umbrellas and a feather boa to add some flavor, the partners create a makeshift dress in a matter of minutes. "And that's how Style Wars is done, ladies and gents!" Diehl screams to the crowd.

In this fusion of the street-bred spontaneity of a rap battle and the glamour of fashion, eight San Francisco designers go head to head in three themed rounds, including "The Bling Dynasty," where the more glitter, the better, "Sport Your Body," where sports equipment dominates couture, and "Pimp My Bride," where white is the only color that's "in." The judges base their decisions using three elements: the design's "it" factor, its "crap-to-couture" ratio, and the designer's and model's performance. The final products include a black bed sheet dominatrix-inspired garment, an architecturally structured dress made entirely from blueprints, and a pants-turned-into-a-top wired dress suit.

"It's amazing to see what these designers can come up with in a matter of minutes," aspiring designer Katherine Cardona says. "If they can create an entirely new outfit using recycled and thrifted materials they randomly put together, I can definitely make something out of anything also."

As the mesmerized audience watches the designers work their magic on stage with the limited resources they have, spectators debate on the legitimacy of some of the designer's styling. "What the hell is she putting on her model?" Sarah Lai exclaims to her friend, as designer Anastazia of Bad Unkl Sista shapes a metal pipe around her model and inserts what appears to be a shiny beaded door curtain through her makeshift loops. "That's not at all fashion; that's more like trash. No model should ever look like a pile of garbage walking down the runway."

After an intense final round and a heated argument between members of the fashion cognoscenti, Japanese designer Kayo Mitsuyama remains standing among the designers and is crowned the winner.

Like many designers, Mitsuyama is used to spending a lot of time on a design, working and reworking every aspect of a garment to perfection. "Most of the time, fashion has to be 'wearable' or 'sellable,' but in this case, I didn't have to think about it that way," she explains. Spontaneous designing challenged her greatly, but throwing the industry's demands and expectations out the window allowed her to free her mind and design on a whim, creating fun and exciting pieces, including her winning outfit, an altered vintage wedding dress fixed with layered tulle and adorned with colorful duct tape. "It was a totally different concept from what I do for my fashion, but I loved the challenge."

Style Wars will continue to search for the fiercest designers around, crossing over the Atlantic to European countries next year. Move over Heidi Klum and Tim Gunn, Style Wars is a fashion competition that will even make Christian Siriano shriek! [X]