The search for an appropriate flexible cathode is pivotal to expediting the development of flexible and foldable lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). Herein, we demonstrate a simple and scalable synthesis of hierarchical V2O5 nanosheet arrays on polydopamine (PDA)-decorated carbon cloth with strong combination between them, which then directly applied as flexible cathode for LIBs. We found this flexible cathode with a loading mass of 2.1 mg cm−2 can deliver a high specific capacity of 120 mAh g−1 even at 15C (1C = 300 mA g−1) and maintain a long-term cycling stability, i.e. simply 0.30% capacity loss per cycle at 2C for 100 cycles without morphology change. More importantly, the corresponding areal capacity can reach as high as 560 μAh cm−2 at 210 μA cm−2, favorably comparing with the-state-of-art flexible cathode reported to date. Additionally, a flexible LIBs full cell has been assembled, exhibiting high mechanical strength and superior electrochemical performances.