About Us
About Us — Belvanta Fletcher
I Started This Business at 52, Alone, With No Idea What I Was Doing.
Three years ago, I signed divorce papers after 24 years of marriage.
I was 51. My kids were grown. My husband had left. And I was standing in my bedroom wondering who I was supposed to be now.
For two decades, I'd been a wife. A mum. An office manager at a real estate agency on the Sunshine Coast. I had a routine. A role. A life that made sense — even when it wasn't perfect.
Then, suddenly, I had none of that.
The first few months were survival. Just getting through the days. Paperwork and lawyers and learning how to be alone in a house that used to be full.
I don't know when the shift happened. But somewhere in those dark months, I decided I needed to do something for myself. Something small. Something that felt like moving forward instead of just surviving.
I decided to buy myself a dress.
Not for an occasion. Not for anyone else. Just for me. Something that made me feel like myself again — whoever that was now.
I spent three weeks looking.
Everything was either designed for women half my age or designed for women who'd given up. Tight and trendy or shapeless and beige. Nothing that said: "I'm 51, I've been through hell, and I still deserve to feel beautiful."
I eventually found one dress. Ordered it from a tiny boutique overseas. When it arrived, I put it on and cried.
Not because it was special. Because I'd forgotten what it felt like to wear something that made me feel like me.
That's when the idea started.
What If I Could Find These Dresses for Other Women?
I didn't have a business plan. I had a laptop, a small amount of money from the divorce settlement, and a daughter who knew how to build a website.
I started sourcing dresses. Ones that were comfortable but not frumpy. Flattering but not trying too hard. Pieces for women who wanted to feel beautiful without squeezing into something designed for a 25-year-old.
My first customers were friends. Women from my old office. Neighbours. Women who, like me, had been quietly struggling to find clothes that made them feel good.
Then their friends. Then strangers. Then women from all over Australia.
I still remember the first order from someone I didn't know. A woman in Melbourne named Patricia. She ordered a floral maxi dress and sent me an email a week later:
"I wore it to my granddaughter's christening. Three people asked where I got it. I felt beautiful for the first time in years. Thank you."
I printed that email. It's still on my desk.
This Isn't Really About Dresses.
I mean, it is. We sell dresses. Good ones. Ones I've personally chosen because they're comfortable, flattering, and don't cost a fortune.
But that's not why I do this.
I do this because I know what it feels like to look in the mirror and not recognise yourself.
I know what it feels like to lose everything you thought defined you — your marriage, your role, your sense of who you are — and have to start again from nothing.
I know what it feels like to stand in a fitting room, trying on something that doesn't fit your body or your life, wondering if you'll ever feel like yourself again.
And I know what it feels like when you finally put on something that works. That moment when you stop tugging and adjusting and criticising. When you just look in the mirror and think: There I am.
That's what I want for every woman who finds us.
Not a dress that transforms you into someone else. A dress that reminds you who you've always been.
A Little About Me (and Why I'm Telling You All This)
My name's Leanne. I'm 54 now. I live on the Sunshine Coast with a very demanding cat named George and more dresses than any one woman needs.
My daughter, who's 26, still helps with the website. She tells me when something I've written sounds "too old." My son, who's 23, thinks it's "pretty cool" that his mum runs a business — which is the highest compliment he gives anything.
I never planned to be a business owner. I planned to retire with my husband and travel and grow old together. Life had other plans.
But here's what I've learned since everything fell apart:
You're not finished.
Whatever you've been through — divorce, loss, illness, just the slow accumulation of years that made you feel invisible — you're not finished.
You're allowed to start again. To try something new. To feel beautiful, even when nothing else makes sense.
I started this business at 52, alone, with no idea what I was doing.
If I can do that, you can buy yourself a dress.
What Belvanta Fletcher Stands For
Real clothes for real women. Not sample sizes. Not 20-year-old models. Clothes designed for bodies that have lived, that have changed, that deserve to be dressed beautifully.
Comfort that doesn't compromise style. You shouldn't have to choose between looking good and feeling good. Every dress we sell, I would wear myself. If it's not comfortable, it's not on this site.
Starting over at any age. This business is proof that it's never too late. Every time you order from us, you're supporting a woman who bet on herself when everything else fell apart.
Thank You for Being Here
I know you have a thousand options. Big brands, fast fashion, stores with bigger budgets and flashier websites.
You're here, reading about a woman who started a dress business in her spare room after her divorce.
That means something to me.
Whether you buy something or not, I want you to know: I see you. I know it's hard to find clothes that make you feel good. I know it's hard to feel beautiful when life isn't going the way you planned.
But you deserve it. You always did.
And if one of our dresses helps you remember that — even for a moment — then this whole thing was worth it.
With love,
Leanne
Founder, Belvanta Fletcher
Sunshine Coast, Queensland
P.S. — If you ever have questions, problems, or just want to tell me about your day, email me directly. I read every single message. This isn't a big corporation. It's just me, George the cat, and a lot of dresses.