Billingsley wins Project Runway: Threads competition

Eighth-grader Bradford Billingsley didn’t just make it to national television this week to compete with his fashion designs. The Pizitz Middle School student took home first place on the premier episode of Project Runway: Threads on Lifetime on Thursday night.

In each episode three teen and tween contestants try to out-design one another and compete for scholarships and other prizes. Bradford won a prize package worth more than $25,000.

Bradford was one of 24 contestants chosen from an initial 250 interviewed. The premiere episode also features special guests television personality Kelly Osbourne and actress and model Jaime King, and was filmed in Los Angeles.

Bradford’s designs have won top spots in Birmingham Fashion Week’s Rising Design Challenge, in which students create designs out of materials that are not fabric. This year he placed second, and in 2013, he placed third. He has also styled for Miss Teen Alabama.