Today we’d like to introduce you to Frances.
Hi Frances, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
It all began during Covid; I had learnt how to sew from watching YouTube videos. It started off with learning simple techniques to sew hair scrunchies, bags, hairbands, and making bangles by wrapping scrap pieces of fabric around the bangle itself. A friend from my hometown had taught me how to make scrunchies and bags using clothing people did not use anymore.
I also began networking online with people from different parts of the world, mainly American entrepreneurs such as, Tony Robbins and Dean Graziozi who hosted Own Your Future challenge. Despite the time difference of being seventeen hours ahead, I got up at 2am for the next five days to learn about how we as a community can stay connected and build our new lives.
The Covid pandemic had us all locked in our houses since it was described as a plague, a virus which began to spread across the world and the precautions were to stay inside the house. Everyone was unsure what this pandemic would mean, but it was the beginning of something that had made people be proactive in adjusting to this new lifestyle, especially if you’re a creative entrepreneur.
I had moved from my hometown, Townsville to Brisbane to get back into the fashion industry especially modelling, this was something I had enjoyed doing in my early twenties. Unfortunately, the pandemic was unpredictable and that meant we had to stay indoors instead of being outside. Many events were cancelled regardless of what industry you were in, schools and universities decided to go online, and anyone who worked in corporate offices now had to work from home. You just had to make the most of what was happening and adjust to the situation which wasn’t easy for many people.
For me it wasn’t too hard because I had lived and travelled to many different countries, so adjusting was nothing to me. The biggest struggle was having to stay indoors, since I was used to going for walks and just being outside because I was a social butterfly. I went from social outdoor butterfly to social online butterfly – very unique huh.
I also decided to join Vault Empowers, an entrepreneur platform owned by Steve Harvey, I wasn’t really sure what it would be about, but I decided to listen and find out more. I continued joining more Facebook groups online, and connecting with people from all over the world, and this is the start of how I created this global fashion brand.
As Covid began to ease down especially in Australia, I think in my state (Queensland, Australia) were very good, we seem to have gotten exempted from lockdown at some point compared to Sydney and Melbourne. I ended up attending an event called Country Girl Management known as CGM which host a one-day modelling event, this company expanded to the USA, and I had their Facebook group to see what other opportunities occurred.
From there, I saw a girl posting about her modelling experience for New York Fashion Week, she wasn’t the typical model that you usually see, she was a plus size model. I connected with her and she told me how she got in, we got talking for a while and she encouraged me to apply as a fashion designer, which I thought was crazy. I only sewed for fun and had no experience at fashion school, I was just testing things out to see where it went.
I kept to my new connections, and I landed my first few online international podcasts with Fenix 360 based in New York. I think it was through StarNow, an amazing online platform for creatives which gets your business seen locally and globally which you can even get paid for. If you’re a creative, definitely get on this platform!
The girl from CGM kept telling me to apply for New York Fashion Week as a designer, and finally I decided to do it. I applied and didn’t expect to get in at all, I mean fashion week is huge in New York, but little did I know I got accepted. I was surprised since it was just an idea that I had in my mind and now I have to work on this idea and make it happen. We did our first international fashion show on the 10th of February 2023, thanks to Runway 7 Fashion.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Oh, definitely not, I have been trolled, I have been broken, had no house, had health issues, you name it!
See sometimes in business not everything you want goes the way you planned, and sometimes not everyone you meet is happy for you, they are not as understanding as you think, they get upset because they couldn’t be a part of the original plan, that’s just it, these things happen in business. But the main thing you as a business owner need to know and understand is, how you handle and deal with the situation. It’s not as easy as you think to keep calm and be level-headed.
As I mentioned, I was trolled on social media because of a decision I made, which I owned up to. In business, it’s important to hold yourself accountable for the thing you do, regardless of how long you have been in business for. Remember you can learn from your mistakes and there’s nothing wrong with that. To be honest, being trolled was hard because social media is now everywhere, and people can say anything they feel like it. Sometimes it can get you down and that was my mistake, letting it get me down.
Now, when I said being broke, being an entrepreneur is not for the fainted hearted. You will have times and moments where you go, “is this right?” or “is what I am doing making an impact?” or “when will I see real money?” and that is the hardest bit about it. If you’re just in it for the money, then you’ve come to the wrong place, regardless or if you are an entrepreneur or not. The one thing I’ve realised is that you need to enjoy what you love and what you do, and you need to reflect on what you have already done, not what you should have done, because there is a difference.
Money will come, and you have to believe that, okay, it can be slow, but what you are doing works because you’ve seen the results, not in money, but in what it has done for other people and how it has made a difference to and in their lives. Running a business is very costly and you have to adjust to what is working and what isn’t working to make the business better. If you cannot adjust what is not working, then running a business is not for you. Changing what is not working is how you build results.
When I did New York Fashion Week, I was evicted in Australia at the same time the show was happening. I had to make a decision based on if I leave now to sort out my housing problem or leave the people who showed up and believed in me. It was a hard decision because when I came back to Australia, I had lost some personal items, no monetary value but sentimental value. So, as I said, business is not for the faint-hearted.
Health issues were another challenge, I had Stage 3 endometriosis with a cyst removed, the aftermath of the surgery is painful because you’re healing from the holes they poked into your stomach to see everything inside. It takes a few weeks to recover properly, and I was supposed to go back to do our Tennessee show which was May 2023 but had to skip that show because of recovery, we sent one of our sponsors, Sbegasaurus to participate.
The next show we did for New York Fashion Week was our first international competition in September 2023, we went back for this, and I was still recovering from endometriosis. During Covid I had every health issue every year, started off with pneumonia (2020), bronchitis (2021) which sent me to hospital, Covid twice (2022), endometriosis (2023), 2024 after coming home from my year overseas had pneumonia, bronchitis and Covid again, and 2025 had an ear infection. So, all this was happening while I was trying to build a business, as I said, it’s not easy to do.
But remember, if you want your business badly, you won’t let anything stop from making it happen.
As you know, we’re big fans of Beautifully Diverse Fashion. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
Please tell us more about your business or organization.
Beautifully Diverse Fashion is about bringing people together to create connection and belonging. It was inspired by my travelling experiences of living in ten different countries (Australia, México, Hong Kong, Singapore, The Philippines, Malaysia, China, New Zealand, UK and the USA). From these experiences it helped me to understand the world around me, how people think, how people live, how life is different in other parts of the world.
From this experience, I am able to say that beauty comes from all backgrounds, because it’s true, how one sees beauty in Australia is completely different to how a person sees beauty in Asia. The models we have on our team are from the general public and we have celebrity models, we bring the people together focusing the connection on common interests such as parenthood, chronic illness, losing a loved one, being a domestic violence survivor, running a business. university students, and much more. We allow the people to be themselves and that way expression becomes comfortable for the individual when they are on the runway.
As a business, we believe that there’s no right or wrong way in fashion. We believe in making it fun, allowing our models to have a voice, instead of being told what to do. They get to choose what to wear from our collections.
What should we know?
We are not like other fashion brands, we built up our brand through communities, communities who needed a voice, and communities who believed they were not being seen. We then focused on the inventory, we did not have a lot of financial means to produce an inventory, so this is where the idea of reusing people’s unwanted clothing came into play. Yes, don’t worry, we do wash the clothes too, we sort through the unwanted items and then start creating. Many of our pieces are given to us are intact and some are also torn, but that doesn’t matter because we cut it all up and reuse it anyway. We reuse the elastics, the pockets, collars, sleeves, and whatever else is unwanted, you name it.
What do you do, what do you specialize in / what are you known for?
We specialise in upcycling clothing and bringing people together. We are known for allowing our models and photographers to have a voice in what they do. So, with our photographers, we allow them to decide between each other who will take the lead across the floor in regard to the photo positions (left, right center). As we know that everyone has their own areas of comfort and the same with our models, we allow them to choose what items they would like to wear and how they want to wear it. We know everyone has their own style, so we want everyone to be comfortable in clothing and shoes.
We are increasing our team of people, we currently have a graphic designer TJC Creative from Dominica in the Caribbean who has previously created flyers for us and has been able to expand his business globally. We are working on recruiting more people so we can focus on other areas of our brand which includes working with vulnerable women who have suffered from domestic violence.
What sets you apart from others?
I remember one show it was coming towards the end of the night and a model confided in me that she was tired of walking in heels, so I said, yes, take them off and wear sneakers if you want. This girl had been walking up and downstairs for the last six hours in heels. This is what sets us apart, we allow our team to relax and not worry about the small things. Another thing that sets up apart is how we can bring people together, regardless of where they are from. I had one comment where someone said to me, “They now have friends from different backgrounds, and they never would have thought to be friends with certain people because of their own upbringings with cultural prejudices”.
What are you most proud brand wise?
When I look back on what we have achieved, I feel proud of everything, even though it’s not perfect and it’s not where I want to be financially, we have achieved so much. Not just in creating the brand, but in meeting new people, building connections, seeing different parts of the world, and never giving up on doing this. Believe me it’s harder than you think, I have had people say, “I hope your business fails” or “you’re not making any money, why you are doing this?” But I have come so far now, we’re now seen all across the globe on social media, YouTube, Spotify, iHeart Radio, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, published in Spanish with more languages to come, a recognised multi-award-winning brand, with more to come. So never give up, no matter how hard it may be (I became hearing impaired at 25 years of age, and I am almost 36), and a lot of my close family and friends did not believe in what we do, nor even know what we do and I am on their social media.
What do you want our readers to know about your brand, offerings, services, etc?
What I want our readers to know is that no matter what idea you have, you can do anything, but you need to believe in you. I think the biggest thing for me is, if I stopped doing what I do, I don’t know what else I would do because I have come so far. I have learnt a lot, achieved a lot, and the biggest thing I want our readers to know is that you get one shot in life, and if you don’t take it, what else will you do? Can you see yourself doing something else? Think about it. Dream big.
At the moment, we are focusing on creating our new cultural collection for our November 2026 show in Guadalajara, México with Fashion Speaks International, a Canadian Indigenous fashion company. This company have believed in us from the beginning, and we personally have not met yet, but we connected through some of their Indigenous models who came to model in Australia after Covid lockdown. We have remained in contact ever since, so remember, you need to go where you are appreciated and needed.
Lately, we have customised an apron for a schoolgirl who had dress up day. Her mother provided fabric and we added a matching fabric to add colour to this item, which only took me six hours to make just from watching a YouTube video. I had never made an apron before and feel so proud of this creation!
Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
I would also like to see us recognised for turning old fabrics into new fabrics, giving clothing life again because it was thrown out. Old clothes aren’t worthless if you know what to do with them. We want to encourage communities to use what they have without having to spend massive amounts of money to create an inventory. There is no shame in reusing items you do not want anymore, it allows you to use your imagination and recreate something you like.
I would also love to see us known for not just bringing people together but seeing us influence the changes amongst the fashion industry to recognise people for just being people. A lot of the time people just think many of the models are bimbos and the photographers are perverts but that is not true. There are good and bad people in the industry that make the industry look bad, and it’s our job to protect our models and photographers who do the right thing.
This was also part of the reason we created our brand; it was to recognise those who did not have a voice and who have been shunned to stay silent for people’s wrongdoing. I have had many models and photographers confide in me about bad situations and did not know what to do about it.
I am not just a fashion designer and creator, but my educational background was in Community Development, Humanitarian Aid and Criminology. I am aiming to purse my legal studies to help women in less fortunate situations to be able to thrive in their new lives. As I personally was a victim of sexual assault, rape and bad relationships. This is what I want our platform to be known for, not just a clothing brand you see in the shops and on the shelves, but a brand that cares about its people and community.
Pricing:
- Handmade solid coloured scrunchies $12
- Handmade two-tone coloured scrunchies $12
- Handmade two-tone hair bonnets $15
- Custom items – based on type of product
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.beautifullydiversefashion.net/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/beautifully.diverse.fashion/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thefranceshelena
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/frances-helena/
- Other: https://www.etsy.com/shop/BDFSustainability
