“I value my physical, emotional, psychological, environmental and spiritual health and I vow to place my personal safety first before engaging in any and all transactions.” - SWI affirmation pillars

Our affirmation pillars are tied to the belief we have that our spirit and intentions travel through all cultural exports.

SWI is a social design house that produces educational healing spaces centered around encouraging the prioritization of cultural imagineers emotional, physical, psychological, environmental and spiritual safety. When our BIPOC LGBTQIA+ cultural creator community feels safe, they thrive. Our intention is to uplift every spirit, inform, connect and remind our community of creative prodigies with love, compassion and care that they matter. We curate and cultivate event production, media, publishing, workshops, digital design, community, connection, think tanks and act as consultants with the most inclusive safe outcomes in mind. We love collaboration and welcome projects with other facilitators, artists, inititatives and organizations.

We pay homage to our ancestors through a HUMAN FIRST MONEY SECOND approach that encourages our members to pay close attention to the body and spirit. In supporting creatives we honor our ancestors that paved the way as we believe that RECLAIMING MEDIA IS A FORM OF REPARATIONS. We are dedicated to supporting our community of creators stay healthy and safe from the rugged nature of capitalism and industry as we envision continuing archives that flood the current market with the messages we truly want to see in this world. Images that embody our mirror, cancelling out out centuries of harmful media with cultural products that embody truth, history, imagination, fantasy, pleasure and beyond.

We instill boundaries and take extra precautions to ensure our gatherings are protected, safe and that folks have the opportunity to be heard. We honor our ancestors and dismantle colonialism at every turn through a loving approach that allows transparency, vulnerability and free thought to form. We are carving a free radical future that allows beings to exist in our spaces in whatever way their expression expands. We believe that organization is a spiritual practice, that in centering such we equip a future of empowered creators.

There is power within peace. Our founder Amelian’s journey through exploitation has furthered her interest in environments that can facilitate the transmutation of pain, disarment as a method to excommunicate baggage and instilling empowerment as a tool to uplift the creative longevity of the BIPOC 2SLGBTQIA+ community at large. Creators of color deserve their roses while they are living.

Our Story.

“Sweetie, there is no budget for you,” - Jeremy Scott

This simple phrase changed the trajectory of our founder Amelian’s life.

Sisters With Invoices was founded in 2018 in response to the varying levels of industry exploitation founder, Amelian experienced behind and in front of the camera over the past decade. First, as a model at the hands of ADIDAS and JEREMY SCOTT , her image catapulted in a global marketing campaign that was referred to as a look book. Amelian’s image was distributed in Europe, Asia, The United States, Australia and in a number of major fashion apparel markets through video, print, store installations, online and in publications.

Not a single release was signed, nor was she paid or informed that her images would be distributed worldwide. Upon asking Scott on set about payment he told her “Sweetie, there is no budget for you.” Young, fresh out of college and with a desire to work in fashion she didn’t know how to advocate for herself much less recognize this person whom she thought was her “friend” was actually taking advantage of her. Amelian lacked praxis as to how sets work, what releases even were, and how much the work she was doing was actually worth. She folded into this idea of “opportunity” because this person who her peers worshipped saw her as “worthy”.

Later, she found out through the photographer of these campaigns that everyone was paid, and well at that. Amelian was the only person of color involved in this production, again unpaid. It was clear there was a budget, but not for the Black female face of the global campaign. Scott, felt it was fitting to hand Amelian a few pieces of clothing or shoes in lieu of payment.

This instance, marking the first time she was on a set of that caliber ultimately affected her idea of self worth moving forward. Amelian fumbled through her career not understanding how to set her worth, as the lingering experience she had with Adidas and Jeremy Scott remained twisted up inside, in a knot in her gut for almost a decade. Simultaneously, she endured business abuses as a corporate stylist at E! Entertainment, and as a freelancer experiencing violence. She fell apart, loosing everything and spiraling into a deep depression. For a decade, the exploitation Amelian experienced constantly came up, yet she lacked the language to pin point what exactly was eating her up inside. She became dependent on drugs, alcohol and had no vision of what a future could look like pursing her dream of continuing in fashion so much so she became suicidal.

Soon, a light bulb clicked on, and she began to rebuild herself. Through industry friends and their depth of knowledge, Amelian began to unravel the violence of transactions in delving deeper into production based jargon, “budgets” and administrative violence that has plagued creators of color dating back to chattel slavery. In August of 2018, she opened up publicly about her industry battles and Sisters With Invoices was born. Amelian is dedicated to ensuring that BIPOC LGBTQIA+ youth, especially Black American descendants of chattel slavery know they are worth more than “free” clothes and shoes, that they deserve a living wage, income and protection from industry vultures.