Embattled Former U.S. Virgin Islands Senator and Senate Liaison to the White House Wayne James Releases 800-Page, Cutting-Edge Etiquette Book, Manly Manners.
Former U.S. Virgin Islands senator and Senate Liaison to the White House Wayne James has just released his highly anticipated etiquette book for men, Manly Manners: Lifestyle & Modern Etiquette for the Young Man of the 21st Century. Published by the iUniverse division of Penguin-Random House, the provocative, edgy, 840-page book—the first of a three-volume treatise totaling 2,100 pages—has been in the making for six years. Since January of 2011, the author has lived on three continents and one archipelago—South America, North America, Europe, and the Caribbean—researching for and writing the treatise, which is already being called “The most comprehensive work on male comportment,” “Refreshingly inclusive and matter-of-factly cosmopolitan,” and “A tour de force.”
James, a Georgetown University law graduate, fashion designer, scholar of Danish West Indies history, and art collector, is also no stranger to controversy: In June of 2016, he waived extradition and was returned to the U.S. Virgin Islands from Italy in August to face Federal criminal charges for alleged “fiscal inconsistencies” during his 2009 – 2011 senate term. James was indicted under seal in October of 2015 and first became aware of the charges eight months later, in June of 2016. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges but was declared a “flight risk” and denied bail until October 7, 2016, when he posted bail and was released under 24/7 lockdown “home incarceration” pending the trial. The trial is scheduled for February 2017.
“Much has—apparently—been said about me while I was abroad on my writing-sojourn,” James said. “Now, after almost six years of rumors and false accusations, I will have my say in a court of law.”
Besides refreshingly covering conventional etiquette-book topics such as table manners, men’s grooming and hygiene, receiving lines, how to hold a glass of red wine versus a glass of white, and how to conduct oneself at an Audience with the pope, Manly Manners also delves into subjects once regarded as taboo or unthinkable for gentlemanly-types: what to do when detained by law enforcement officers; the etiquette of gay saunas, gloryholes, and fetish parties; how to “shop while ethnic”; how to survive prison; the etiquette of os impurum, irrumatio, anilingus, and cunnilingus; how to avoid being shot on a front porch while seeking emergency assistance in the middle of the night; delicate ways of suggesting an enema to a sex-partner prior to engaging in anal sex; and how to masturbate—correctly—so as to avoid contracting Peyronie’s Disease. The book, its Foreword written by Finland’s and Sweden’s Baron Peter von Troil, also has a substantial chapter titled “International Customs and Influences,” which discusses everything from what to do if invited to a wedding in India or Iran, a Bar Mitzvah in Argentina, a funeral in Japan, a business meeting in China, or a dinner in Dubai, to the protocol of a coffee ceremony in Ethiopia. Then there is a 200-page chapter—practically a book in itself—on how to plan a same-sex wedding from A to Z.
“My aim was to write a reference book that engages readers like a mystery or romance novel,” said James, dubbed “The ‘Bad Boy’ of Good Manners.” “The book entices young men, word by word, sentence by sentence, page by page. I envision males, ages 16 to 60, staying up late into the night reading Manly Manners—even if under the bedsheets with the aid of a flashlight!”
Volume two, Manly Manners: The Cultivation of the Inner, Spiritual Gentleman, will be released in June of 2017; and volume three, Manly Manners: The Masculine Luxuries, will be published in October of 2017.
James will announce his book-tour and lecture schedules after the February trial. “Since June of 2016, I have been in four prisons and have seen and experienced a segment of the male population that has given me a more complete outlook on what it is to be a man in the 21st century,” James said. “My recent experiences, when put into the context of my eventful life, have made me especially qualified to speak to men from all walks of life—from the noble to the notorious—on matters pertaining to modern men’s lifestyle. I also have a thing or two to say about the ‘Presumption of Innocence’ and prison reform! Many a grown man would have succumbed under similar circumstances. But this is all a testament to one of my primary outlooks on life: ‘As you surmount the various obstacles on your road to success, you get a clearer view of your final destination.’ Besides, now I can truly say that I have friends in high—and low—places. And now I can speak about it all in a more Zen way,” James concluded.
Manly Manners: Lifestyle & Modern Etiquette for the Young Man of the 21st Century (ISBN: 978-1-4917-9427-2), distributed by Ingram Books, the world’s largest distributor of books, is available in hardcover, paperback, and eBook formats online at http://www.amazon.com , http://www.BarnesandNoble.com , and http://www.iUniverse.com , as well as in bookstores worldwide and at other online booksellers.
If there is one nation that should pay Reparations for its active participation in the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, it is Denmark—so much so that it could easily qualify as the initiative’s “poster nation.” Here are ten (10) reasons why:
1) Because of excellent Danish record-kee(ping and archives, many people of the former Danish West Indies (present-day United States Virgin Islands) are able to trace their ancestry—with uninterrupted documental evidence—to persons who were enslaved in the Danish West Indies, in some cases even identifying the names of the slaving vessels upon which their ancestors were transported to the colony, and in rarer cases to the African nations whence their ancestors came.
2) When African people were enslaved and brought to the Danish West Indies, they were systematically separated from their African culture, families, belief systems, and self-identities, Denmark becoming the surrogate motherland. So, when Denmark sold the islands to the United States in 1917, the islands’ Black population, in effect, became a people doubly displaced and, therefore, doubly traumatized.
3) When Herbert Hoover visited the Virgin Islands of the United States in 1931, a mere 14 years after Transfer, thereby becoming the first U.S. President to visit the Virgin Islands, he described the islands as a veritable “poorhouse” of the United States.
4) Unlike other colonial powers, Denmark—because it sold its colonies to the United States, the world’s wealthiest and most powerful country—has never had to contend with “colonial karma” and the repercussions of a colonial past in the form immigration by former colonial subjects seeking employment, social services, education, etc.; has never had to send relief to its former colony in times of natural disaster, epidemic, or economic hardships; has never had to provide military defense in times of conflict; and has never been called upon to lend money or forgive debts.
5) Compared to other slave-trading nations (perhaps with the exception of Sweden, which from 1784 – 1878 colonized and enslaved Africans on the tiny Caribbean island of St. Barthélemy [St. Barts]) such as Portugal, Spain, Great Britain, France, and the United States, which had large colonies and/or enslaved millions of people, Denmark’s share of the overall trade was relatively small, and its Reparation bill would therefore be comparatively miniscule.
6) Because Denmark was politically unified with Norway until 1814, a mere 34 years before the abolition of slavery in the Danish West Indies, Denmark would be significantly justified in requesting that Norway contribute towards Reparations, thereby sharing the burden with Denmark.
7) Denmark has long prided itself on being the first nation to end the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade—on January 1, 1803 (though the institution of Danish slavery continued until 1848). It would therefore be in keeping with Danish precedent—and a way for Denmark to
establish international precedent—by being the first former slaving-nation to pay Reparations.
8) In a world where “tolerance,” “diversity,” “multi-culturalism,” and “political correctness” have become part of the international lexicon, Denmark, in keeping with its reputation for open-mindedness and social programs, should lead the way by “doing the right thing” to fix a bad thing.
9) The effects of slavery—psychological, social, and economic—are still very palpable in the lives of the descendants of the enslaved population of the former Danish West Indies.
10) At the end of slavery in 1848, Denmark, unlike the United States for example, never offered to compensate its formerly enslaved population (approximately 35,000)—not even with an empty promise of “forty Greenland hectares and a reindeer.”
A Synopsis of the History of the Danish West Indies from 1671 to 1917:
For 246 years, a span of time touching upon four centuries, Denmark engaged in the sordid business of slavery and then colonialism in the country’s far-flung tropical island-possessions in the Caribbean Sea, the islands euphemistically and naïvely referred to by Danish school children as the “Sugar Islands,” but officially as the “Danish West Indies” (St. Croix, St. Thomas, and St. John).
During that period, all of the things that characterize the infamous Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade—the shipping across the Atlantic Ocean’s infamous “Middle Passage” of thousands of people (the official total being 120,000 for the 130-year-long period between 1673 and 1803, which, if accurate, would amount to a mere 923 slaves to be distributed amongst the three Danish islands, at 307 slaves per island, per year) occurred: people bound and shackled in the putrid holds of slaving vessels, voyages typically enduring three months, with the death toll of the enslaved sometimes reaching 50 percent; a life of toil and misery on the sugar plantations in the islands, the life expectancy of the enslaved population during the 17th,18th, and first decade of the 19th centuries being a mere five years; dehumanizing slave codes that could, at best, be described as draconian; the systematic separation of African peoples from their history, cultures, families, languages, religions, and self-esteem; and the enrichment and, as a result, advancement of Denmark. By any and every method of measure, Danish slavery was slavery; its intention was to dehumanize the enslaved and maximize profits. And even after the enslaved population, led by John “Moses” Gotlieb (“General Budhoe”) (1820-[1849?]), demanded and was then begrudgingly granted freedom on July 3, 1848, the Danes persisted with de facto slavery, so much so that 30 years later, in the event that would come to be known as “Fireburn,” four heroines, namely Susannah “Bottom Belly” Abrahamsen (1831-1906), Mathilde McBean (1857-1935), Axeline “Agnes” Elizabeth Salomon (1854-1904), and Mary Leticia Thomas (1842-1905), led a labor insurrection that resulted in the destruction of 51 of St. Croix’s plantations. Then, in the throes of World War I, in a strategic move to keep Germany out of the Western Hemisphere, on March 31, 1917, after unsuccessful attempts in 1867 and 1902, Denmark sold the Danish West Indies to the United States of America for $25 million dollars in gold. Thus ended Danish Colonial history in the New World. And except for nostalgically glancing back at its former colonies from time to time—on occasions such as the semi-centennial anniversary of Transfer in 1967, or during annual exchanges between the Demark-based Danish West Indies Society and the Virgin Islands-based Friends of Denmark, the post-1917 relationship of Denmark towards its former “Sugar Islands” could accurately be described as “slam, bam, thank you, ma’am,” or “loved then left.” In essence, Denmark reaped the benefits of slavery and colonialism, then walked away from it all like a fat, rich cat. (Also, once slavery ended in the middle of the 19th century,
thereby causing the decline in plantation profits, the islands’ public and private infrastructure began its decline such that when the United States acquired the islands sixty-nine years later, many of the islands’ buildings were in a state of neglect and disrepair.)
Reparations
The concept of Reparations is neither new nor radical. Union General William T. Sherman, on January 16, 1865, promised the former American slave population the now-proverbial “forty acres and a mule.” The United States, then a young nation of not even 100 years, infamously never delivered on that promise to the vast majority of the former slaves. But the promise acknowledged the consciousness that the formerly enslaved should be compensated in some form—even if grossly inadequately—for their lifetimes of free hard labor. Denmark, on the other hand, by then an old, established country, its first monarch being Gorm the Old (940-958 A.D.), never saw it fit to even make such a promise—even if an empty one. (Denmark’s Greenland has enough landmass for Denmark to have offered every newly Emancipated man, woman, and child [approximately 35,000 people] in the Danish West Indies on July 3, 1848, forty acres and a reindeer—even if Denmark knew that very few Virgin Islanders would have abandoned their warm Caribbean homeland for cold, dark Greenland, regardless of the incentives.)
But like all other countries directly involved in the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, Denmark has traditionally proffered the standard, rote objections and defenses—some less inspired than others—to paying Reparations: that the people actually harmed and the people who did the actual harming have already died and therefore cannot be compensated and blamed, respectively; that most present-day Black people cannot definitively prove that they descend from enslaved forefathers; that the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade was authorized by law, albeit, in retrospect, an inhumane law; that the harm occurred in the too-distant past; that Africans, too, are to blame since they participated in and facilitated the Slave Trade; that Africans had a long history of enslaving each other that preceded the arrival of Europeans in the mid-15th century; that the Arab-run Trans-Saharan Slave Trade was at least as bad as the Trans-Atlantic, and that if Europeans must pay Reparations, so should the Arabs; that present-day Danes did not participate in the Slave Trade, so why should they have to pay Reparations for an institution in which they played no role; that during the era of slavery, most Danish serfs in Denmark were almost as poor and worked almost as hard as slaves; that paying Reparation would be too complicated. (And then, of course, there are the absurd arguments and defenses that are rarely uttered in public: that Black people in the New World—the descendants of slaves—benefited by being removed from Africa, even if that removal was via slavery; that Danish slavery was more humane than that of other slaving nations; that Danish slaves were happy; etc.).
Danish slavery was so traumatic to Virgin Islanders that it took 120 years after Emancipation for the descendants of the slaves to finally leave the plantations upon which their ancestors were bound. And the exodus, which took place in 1966 when the sugar cane industry on St. Croix finally ended, was a forced one: The government, assisted by the plantation owners, physically removed the roofs from the laborers’ dwellings (former slave quarters), thereby exposing the occupants and their belongings to the elements. It was then, and only then, just one year before the semi-centennial celebrations of Transfer in 1967, that average Virgin Islanders begrudgingly and fearfully took their first steps onto the path of mental Emancipation. After all, slavery and a post-slavery agrarian life were all that they had known for 295 years (1671-1966).
The displaced former plantation laborers then became the first residents of public housing, pejoratively referred to as “the [housing] projects,” where some remain to this day, fifty years later. Of course, upon Emancipation, some of the newly freed slaves, pledging never again to work in the canefields—even for wages—immediately left the plantations, took up residence in the towns, and made their livings in other professions. And it is those people who laid the foundation for what would eventually become a thriving Black middle class by the 1940s, one century after Emancipation, with a few Black families rising to prominence between the late 1800s and the 1920s.
Post-slavery trauma is not unique to the Danish West Indies. Evidence of the damage slavery exacted upon Black people throughout the New World is ever-obvious even today: the wealth, education, and social disparities between Black people and White people; racism; discrimination; and self-hate and inferiority complexes, for example. What was particularly egregious about Danish slavery, however, was that Virgin Islanders were twice-traumatized: once when they were ripped from their African way of life and forced into slavery; and once when they were ripped from Danish culture and Transferred to American culture. The result is a cultural schizophrenia that is evidenced by a lingering “colonial mentality” and an unwillingness to, after 100 years, embrace the proverbial “American Dream.” The sugar mill, arguably the quintessential symbol of slavery in the Danish West Indies (but also a testament to ancestral fortitude), persists as a beloved territorial monument.
When Denmark sold the Danish West Indies in 1917, Denmark walked away from centuries of slavery and colonialism like a “fat cat”—without a worry or care. Once slavery ended in the middle of the 19th century, the islands witnessed a steady economic decline. So, by the time of the sale, Denmark’s interest in the islands had waned. To the Danish government, the sale came as a windfall. And Danes laughed all the way to the bank, losing interest in its principal colonies.
But the Danish zeitgeist is one of social largess. And Denmark has a long record of being on the cutting edge of social reform—whether by being the first country to recognize same-sex domestic partnerships, to neutrality in time of war, to opening its borders to refugees from all over the world. Denmark however, in some apparent occurrence of colonial amnesia, has overlooked its largest social obligation: to atone for its crimes against humanity committed in its “Sugar Islands.” Admittedly, Reparations will be a complicated matter. But so was slavery. Furthermore, as compared to countries such as Spain, Portugal, Great Britain, and France that would not know where to begin to resolve their unimaginable Reparations claims, Denmark, because it possessed three tiny colonies with relatively few enslaved persons, would have an easier time, especially with the assistance of Norway. The form those Reparations should take, who should be eligible, how much should be paid, etc., will all be matters for major discussion between Denmark and Virgin Islanders who, as a result of excellent Danish archives, can trace their ancestry in the Danish West Indies back to 1848 and earlier. But given the inevitability of Reparations—one way or another—it would behoove Denmark to once again be the vanguard in correcting what is widely regarded as humanity’s greatest crime against its fellowman.
During a period lasting just shy of 250 years, African people in the Danish West Indies were precluded from developing and utilizing their God-given talents for the benefit of humanity, themselves, and their offspring, an d were, instead, relegated to a life of plantation labor. Under that system, persons otherwise born to have been great artists, orators, writers, inventors, leaders, lawyers, doctors, and philosophers, for example, were forced to cut sugarcane. Then, at the end of their bonsai-like deprived lives, were typically laid into unmarked graves and almost forgotten by time (except for the fact that the Danes kept copious records of everything). Thus, present-day Virgin Islanders were deprived of 20-plus consecutive generations of accumulated family wealth. And the overall progress of humanity was compromised by having excluded an entire race of people from making its full, proper contribution to humanity.
In 2017, with the awakened consciousness of social correctness, Trans-Atlantic Slavery and its aftermath of colonialism can no longer be explained away as an unrectifiable wrong. If man can unlock the mysteries of the Universe and decipher DNA, he can find ways to make Reparations a reality, thereby allowing the descendants of enslaved Africans and the rest of humanity to finally turn the page on this dark chapter of human history.
Apology
At the foundation of Denmark’s refusal to officially apologize for its 246-year involvement in Trans-Atlantic Slavery and colonialism are two principal arguments: the popular argument, and the political argument. The popular argument, inculcated into the national consciousness, is the position that because present-day Danish people did not personally participate in the Danish Slave Trade, they are under no obligation, ethical or legal, to apologize to present-day Virgin Islanders, none of whom personally experienced the horrors of slavery. The political argument, though it is never publicly expressed, is that an official Danish apology would be tantamount to an admission of guilt, thereby laying the foundation for claims for Reparations. And the general consensus, even amongst the most intellectual and liberal of Danes, is that Denmark should not pay Reparations.
The popular argument is, at best, uninspired. Present-day Danes routinely claim the triumphs and accomplishments of their long-dead ancestors, so why can’t present-day Danes claim the failures and atrocities of those same ancestors? Present-day Danes, for example, venerate their forefathers for being the first people to end the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade on January 1, 1803. Present-day Danes also acknowledge and embrace the achievements of 18th- and 19th-century Danes such as world-renowned writer Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875) and internationally famous sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770-1844). But those same present-day Danes routinely disassociate themselves from slave-trading Danes who were the contemporaries of those national heroes referenced herein. What present-day Danes overlook, however, is the very obvious fact: Had Danish people apologized to the people of the Virgin Islands at the opportune time—when slavery ended 169 years ago—this ridiculous discussion about whether Danes should apologize would have been rightfully settled eight generations ago. Meanwhile, the political argument is also a ticking timebomb. At one point or another, in one form or another, the Trans-Atlantic slave-trading nations—Portugal, Spain, Great Britain, France, Holland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Brazil, (and Brandenburg, today one of the 16 federated states of Germany)—are going to have to pay Reparations. Such is the nature of things: neither good deeds nor bad deeds go unpunished. Whether at the hands of “Karma,” Divine Recompense,” or “Comeuppance,” the world has a way of correcting itself and righting wrongs. Case in point: For centuries, Denmark went about the world under the banner of colonialism, enriching the nation’s coffers at the expense of its colonies. And though it walked away from its Caribbean colonial experience “scott-free,” Denmark is now—for the first time in its long, recorded history—as a result of its membership in the European Union, experiencing the challenges that accompany mass immigration, even though none of those immigrants are Virgin Islanders. The fact that 169 years after Emancipation and 100 years after Transfer, Virgin Islanders still must “debate,” “engage in discussion,” and “wrestle” with Danish people over an apology for something as obviously and fundamentally wrong as slavery is further insult to the people of the Virgin Islands. Anyone with the slightest degree of human dignity knows instinctively that to enslave another human being and deprive him of his freedom is a corruption of nature. Even school children know wrong from right. School children also know that an “apology” that does not willingly, freely, and genuinely flow from the soul is no apology at all. So, in this day and age, if the average Danish person actually feels that he or she cannot or should not, on behalf of his ancestors, apologize to the people of the Virgin Islands for slavery, then present-day Danish people need to take their apology (or lack thereof) and shove it! Where else on planet Earth does the person wronged have to beg and plead with the wrongdoer for a genuine apology? In the case of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, it was the blond-haired, blue-eyed Dane who was the “barbarian,” and it was the dark-skinned, dark-eyed African who was the victim. Furthermore—for the record (and it is well-established that Danes are inclined towards recordkeeping)—the great Danes never officially said “thank you” to their enslaved population for 177 years (1671-1848) of free labor either. Should Virgin Islanders also beg and plead for a “thank you”? Maybe Danish people should read the recently released book, Manly Manners: Lifestyle & Modern Etiquette for the Young Man of the 21st Century.
On March 26, 2017, the “Moravian Church in Denmark and several citizens of Denmark” issued an official apology to the people of the Virgin Islands for slavery in the Danish West Indies: “Together with several citizens of Denmark, we declare to be deeply troubled about a deeply regrettable past, in which the forefathers of the population of the US Virgin Islands were enslaved and against their will were forced to labor for masters, many of whom came from Denmark. For this, although belated, we apologize in the spirit of love.” The declaration then goes further to “ask with respect and humbleness” that the people of the Virgin Islands receive the declaration with the spirit in which it was conveyed: “with openness, love and a will to live in peace and harmony together.”
It is not surprising that the Moravians in Denmark would be the first Danes to issue an official apology—even if 169 years overdue—to the people of the Virgin Islands. After all, it was only the Moravians who, when baptizing the enslaved population into the faith, were conscious enough to document the African origins and African names of the converted as declared by the Africans. And it was the Moravians who, from as early as the 1730s in compliance with the doctrine of “Pietism,” began teaching the enslaved population to read the Holy Bible so as to find their individual paths to God. And in 1787, when the Danish government decided to establish public schools for the enslaved in the towns of Christiansted, Frederiksted, and Charlotte Amalie, thereby becoming the first nation in the history of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade to provide public education to its enslaved population, it was the Moravians who were called upon by the government to serve as teachers. (It should be noted, however, that the present-day Moravian congregation in all of Denmark numbers a mere 300 persons—fewer than the Moravian population of the town of Frederiksted, St. Croix, and represents 0.00534% of the Danish Population. And as of the time of this writing, only 72 Danes have signed the declaration. But as Virgin Islanders say, “one-one guava full up basket…,” meaning, every little bit counts). Perhaps the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Denmark (also called the “National Church” or “Church of Denmark”), with its membership of 4,368,971 and of which the reigning monarch of Denmark, Her Royal Highness Queen Margrethe II, is the supreme secular authority, will follow the Christian example set by the Moravians in Denmark and issue an official apology, thereby speaking on behalf of 75.9% of the Danish people. And then once Denmark’s churches have issued their apologies, perhaps politicians will follow suit.
Conclusion
The people of the Virgin Islands, despite the atrocities of slavery visited upon their ancestors—the reverberations of those atrocities still ever-present today—have unwaveringly maintained warm, loving relations towards Danes and Danish West Indies heritage. Danish surnames—worn by black faces—populate the islands’ telephone directory; Danish West Indies architecture and Danish street names still serve as undeniable evidence of the Danish presence in the islands; Danish West Indies antique furnishings decorate the islands’ finest homes and are so cherished that they are oftentimes listed in last wills and testaments; Danish-inspired food partly comprises what is defined as traditional Virgin Islands cuisine; and if, in a raging tempest, a Virgin Islander must at once offer shelter to a Dane and an American, the average islander is more likely to offer his assistance first to the Dane. Perhaps the aforementioned is further evidence of the legacy of slavery; or perhaps the islanders’ enduring affinity for Denmark is not at all towards Denmark, but is instead an effort to bind themselves to their ancestral past; or maybe it is a testament to the inherent dignity of the people of the Virgin Islands. It is possibly a combination of all. But one thing is for certain: What has evolved over the years as Danish-Virgin Islands relations could serve as a 21st-cetury model for race relations and international diplomacy—a lesson that could inspire all of humanity. And another certainty is this: If Virgin Islanders and Danes could have remained amicable despite their shared past, then there is no telling what they could achieve together if at the foundation of their future relationship is the resolution of the “unfinished business” between them—Reparations and Apology.
Epilogue
Beginning in 1998, as part and parcel to the Middle Passage Monument Project (MPMP), the international initiative that culminated in the lowering of a 12-foot tall, 17-foot wide monument onto the floor of the Atlantic Ocean in honor of the estimated millions of enslaved Africans who perished en route to and at the hands of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and Trans-Atlantic Slavery between the 15th and 19th centuries, Wayne James, founder of the MPMP, has been an active, outspoken proponent for Danish Reparations to native Virgin Islanders, his views on the subject having been chronicled by the Danish and Virgin Islands media for almost 30 years.
The above article was written in March of 2017 for inclusion in the Danish online publication, POV (Point of View), as part of the Centennial Celebrations of the Transfer of the Danish West Indies to the United States of America. However, since 2017, little progress has been realized regarding Denmark’s embrace of Apology and Reparations.
As such, the Danish Reparations and Apology Council (DARC) was established. And the world’s foremost scholars and practitioners of International Law; diplomats; descendants of some of the most prominent Danish West Indies colonial families; African Diaspora historians; and natives of the Virgin Islands and Denmark are being tapped to form the cadre that will advance the claims for Apology and Reparations to the people of Denmark, beginning in 2027 in celebration of the 110th anniversary of Transfer. And DARC, armed with the most comprehensive documentary archives of the enslaved in the history of Trans-Atlantic Slavery, is laying the foundation with the appropriate entities within the United Nations to request the General Assembly, buttressed by the precedent of individual reparations established by the 1952 Luxembourg Agreement, to seek of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague an Advisory Opinion. Thereafter, DARC will embark upon the noble task of securing Apology and Reparations for native Virgin Islanders who can trace, with unbroken documentation, the presence of their ancestors in the Danish West Indies to July 3, 1848 or earlier.
Fashion Designer Wayne James Donates Collection of Rare Historic Cuba Photos to Miami-Dade Public Library Archives
St. Croix-born Black fashion designer Wayne James has donated his collection of 1,670 century-old Cuba photographs to the Miami-Dade Public Library Archives. The captioned photographs, issued in April of 1925 by the then-Havana-based Henry Clay and Bock & Co., Ltd., cigar company, depict everything from Cuba’s grand public square and churches to picturesque plantations, public parks, and palatial mansions. All of the island-nation’s provinces are represented in the photographs, and the Archives has painstakingly scanned and digitized each image in high resolution. The general public can access the collection and its supporting literature via the library’s website. And the original photos, preserved as an album, has been deposited with the Archives for special-request access by the public. After discussions with various Florida-based institutions, including universities, museums, and Cuban organizations, James decided to gift the collection to the Miami-Dade Public Library after the institution assured him that it was ready, willing, and able to expeditiously avail the collection to the public. The specific language of the gift reads as follows: “A gift from St. Croix-born fashion designer Wayne James, president of http://www.waynejames.com , to the people of Cuba and of the world in recognition of the 100th anniversary of the 1925 issuance by Henry Clay and Bock & Co., Ltd., ‘Postales para el Album” series, as an expression of gratitude to the architectural heritage of the Caribbean by the Messer and James families of St. Croix, United States Virgin Islands.” The gift was officially executed on May 5, 2026, and the collection was made available to the public in early June.
Background:
In 1925, the Henry Clay and Bock & Co., Ltd., cigar company began issuing postcards depicting the grandeur of Cuba. The sequentially numbered cards (No. 1- No. 1,671) were individually enclosed—like baseball cards—in the company’s cigarette packages. Customers were encouraged to purchase a company-issued, hardbound photo album, its 115 pages providing sequentially numbered spaces and province headings (“Havana,” “Camaguey,” “Matanzas,” etc.) for the corresponding cards. The objective of the initiative was to market the cigarettes while encouraging customers to collect then safeguard the keepsake cards by gluing them into the album. Apparently, vey few collectors accomplished the arduous task of securing all 1,671 of the cards. (A 40-page informational/instructional booklet describing the socio-historical significance of the project and providing an itemized listing of each photo in the series was provided with the purchase of each album. The James collection booklet is believed to be the only copy to have survived the ravages of time.) And many of the individual cards have been lost to time.
The History of the Messer/James Collection:
In 1918, after having lived 10 years in the Dominican Republic, Alexander Messer, born on St. Croix, Danish West Indies, in 1888 to Christian Messer(1859-1927) and Andrina Prince Messer (1865-1941), emigrated to Cuba to work as a musician and sugarcane laborer, settling in Santiago de Cuba. Alexander was joined by his younger brother, Richard Messer, born in 1893, who settled in Camaguey.
Beginning in 1925, in order to share their adopted Cuban homeland with their parents and siblings, Alexander and Richard would occasionally enclose the Henry Clay and Bock & Co., Ltd., picture-cards in their letters. Alfonso Messer (1896-1973), younger brother to Alexander and Richard, would safeguard the photos at the family’s ancestral home in Frederiksted, St. Croix. And in 1973, upon the death of Alofonso, the nascent collection of approximately 100 picture-cards passed to the brothers’ great-nephew Wayne James, a boy of 11 years of age at the time of his acquisition of the photos.
Fascinated with Cuba because of his great-uncles’ emigration to the island and because of an early introduction to the history of the island and its 1959 revolution by his elementary school teacher Selwyn Checkley, young James precociously recognized the historical significance of the photos and preserved them, over the course of the following 50 years augmenting his family’s seminal collection via meticulous private collecting and shrewd bidding at international auction houses.
“The amassing of the collection was the result of the convergence of scholarship, serendipity, and a stubborn devotion to the cause,” James said. Today, Wayne James’ private archives boats four complete collections of the Henry Clay and Bock & Co., Ltd., images, James’ collection believed to be the world’s largest and most comprehensive. (It is unknown outside of Cuba whether the collection housed at the National Library of Cuba in Havana contains all 1,671 images. And the University of Miami’s Cuban Heritage Collection, the largest repository of Cuban archival material outside of Cuba, has fewer than 900 of the images.) James’ collection also includes one original copy of the 40-page information booklet issued with the photos in 1925. The booklet—in pristine condition—is believed to be the only extant copy. It provides invaluable details about the century-old photographic series and the institution that gave it rise.
The Sharing of the Legacy:
In October of 2009, while Senator of the United States Virgin Islands and visiting Cuba to attend the biennial conference of Caribbean architects, James donated a CD containing approximately 250 of the Henry Clay and Bock & Co., Ltd., images to the University of Havana library, which, at the time, had no archival knowledge of the series. And in 2021, inspired by his dear Cuban friend Luis C. Garcia-Menocal, great-grandson of Mario Garcia-Menocal, Cuba’s third present (1913-1921), James directed Going…Going…Gone: The Grandeur of Golden-Age Cuba, a 3-part, 6-hour docufilm executed in the emerging “quiltography” genre, approximately 450 of the Cuba photos serving as the visual foundation of the film. The critically acclaimed film premiered at the Musto Center in Union City, New Jersey, and was featured on the front page of Havana Times.
Preserving the Legacy:
Christopher Columbus encountered Cuba in 1492; and in 1521, Havana was established. Thus, the 1925 Henry Clay and Bock & Co., Ltd., Cuba photo series depicts a sweeping 400 years of the island’s grandeur. Today, much of the island-nation’s architectural heritage is in need of preservation. And, as such, the Henry Clay and Bock & Co., Ltd., collection of 1,671 images serves as the most comprehensive photographic record of pre-1950 Cuba.
“By giving the collection to the Miami-Dade Public Library, I have essentially given the collection to the people of Cuba and the world,” James said.
The St. Croix-based family lost contact with Alexander and Richard Messer after the 1959 Cuban Revolution, the last physical contact occurring when their niece Eileen Messer (1913-1996) visited Cuba in 1953.
“We in the family believe that Alexander and Richard Messer lived into the late 1960s or early 1970s; in-situ research will have to be conducted to uncover more details about their final years,” James said. “What is definitively known, however, is that the photographic legacy they established a century ago endures. And with this gift to the Miami-Dade Public Library, the people of Cuba and the world will forever know the beauty and grandeur of Cuba as it was in 1925,” James concluded.
Season One of “Sugar Daddies, Boy Toys” Postponed Amidst International Conflict
Season One of “Sugar Daddies, Boy Toys,” the Miami-based reality TV show, has been postponed amidst escalating tensions deriving from the ongoing U.S/Israel—Iran War. The 13-episode show was slated to premiere in September of 2026.
The groundbreaking show pairing extraordinary young men between the ages of 21 and 32 with millionaire older men between 55 and 70 is a breathtaking departure from the typical one-sided reality dating show where the protagonist unilaterally selects the contestant of his or her choice. In “Sugar Daddies, Boy Toys,” the 15 Boy Toys have equal say in selecting from six(6) Sugar Daddies. And in the end, the choice is between walking away with the certainty of $100,000 USD, or hoping for a life of love and luxury with a Sugar Daddy.
While Sugar Daddies are preliminarily vetted to ensure a net worth of at least five million dollars, young men from around the world were able to preliminarily audition online at www.sugardaddiesboytoys.com .
“The show appeals to young men from around the world,” said fashion designer Wayne James, concept-creator of “Sugar Daddies, Boy Toys.” “The Season One online applicants represented regions far and wide, especially Eastern Europe, South Asia, and South America.”
Miami was selected as the setting for the show because of its cosmopolitan appeal, weather, and reputation for attracting beautiful people from around the globe.
“Our primary concern must be the safety of the show’s participants,” James said. “America’s current immigration and visa policies have proven challenging. And with the additional uncertainties generated by the war, the decision was made to postpone the production of Season One.”
Wayne James Acquires D. Hamilton Jackson’s Mahogany Armchairs
Virgin Islands historian Wayne James has acquired a set of six caned mahogany armchairs once owned by venerated Virgin Islands labor leader David Hamilton Jackson (1884-1946). The 200-year-old chairs were used at the King Street, Christiansted, St. Croix, newsroom of Jackson’s newspaper The Herald (1915-1947).
Made in Denmark of West Indies mahogany in the 1820s, the chairs were first owned by the Schimmelmann family, then the proprietors of Estates La Grange and La Grande Princesse. In 1897, when Baron Gustav Adolf Hagemann (1842-1916) purchased the Schimmelmann estates, the chairs were used at La Grange and were described as the “Dowagers’ Sofa” when all six chairs would be placed adjacent to each other to form one, long, sectioned seat, the sturdy arms of each chair enabling elderly “high-born ladies” to brace themselves while sitting and subsequently standing.
In 1922 the Hagemann family sold its numerous St. Croix holdings, the six chairs becoming part of the exquisite Danish West Indies mahogany collection at the Pentheny Hotel in Christiansted before being acquired by D. Hamilton Jackson for use at The Herald.
After several years in service at The Herald’s Congressional Hall location at the foot of King Street, Christiansted, the six chairs were situated until the early 1960s at Cumberland Castle, King Street, Frederiksted, St. Croix, then the west-end headquarters of the St. Croix Labor Union.
In 1967, during the celebrations marking the 50th anniversary of sale of the Danish West Indies to the United States of America (Transfer), the suite of six chairs was acquired by a prominent Danish family and sent back to Scandinavia. And from around 1974 to 1994, the chairs were used at the Canary Islands villa of Countess Margit Hagemann von Guirkoveeki.
“In 2017, the year marking the 100th anniversary of Transfer, a Danish art dealer contacted me regarding the purchase of the chairs,” said Wayne James, Virgin Islands-born historian and art collector. “I was pleasantly surprised to learn that all six chairs had remained together for their two centuries of existence, thereby significantly enhancing their value.”
After numerous discussions—including a detailed restoration protocol—James acquired the chairs in 2024, and plans are underway to have the six-chair “Dowagers’ Sofa” be prominently featured in James’ upcoming exhibition, “Seascapes and Sofas,” an exquisitely curated exhibition of Danish and Danish West Indies antique mahogany sofas, each to be paired with a 19th-century Danish seascape painting.
Wayne James is no stranger to the public display of his antique collection. From November of 2003 to August of 2004, he singlehandedly redecorated the Whim Greathouse with his acclaimed exhibition titled “Press to Des’, Pillar to Post: The Antique Collection of St. Croix-born Fashion Designer Wayne James.” And in 2009, he graced the Officers’ Quarters of historic Fort Frederik with his antique bedroom collection titled “Sleeping with the Bachelor: The Antique Bedroom Collection of Crucian Collector Wayne James.” The Fort Frederik exhibition was initially slated to be on display for six months but is still on display—almost 20 years after its unveiling.
“ ‘Seascapes and Sofas’ has been years in the making,” James said. “My mission was to select approximately 12 timelessly beautiful sofas, each more compelling than the next, then surmount each one with a visual journey into Denmak’s seafaring history. The exhibition is about 80-percent curated, and I expect to unveil it in the Virgin Islands in 2030,” James concluded.
Fashion Designer Wayne James: Laying the Foundations for Legacy
The Early Years:
In March of 1987, while Wayne James was in his last semester of law school at Georgetown
University, he presented his first fashion collection at the Anita Shapolsky Gallery in New York’s SoHo. Featured in the Washington Post’s “Style” section one month before the March 30th unveiling, James’ show attracted fashion journalists and buyers from across New York City. Bergdorf Goodman, arguably the world’s most discerning retailer of designer garments, purchased the “New York Exclusive” of the debut collection on April 6th. James earned his law degree in May, and his garments—a collection featuring jewel-toned wool sweaters, sweater dresses, and sweater-skirt sets—were in stores across the United States that July.
But James’ seamless transition from prestigious law school to the Andes Mountains of Ecuador to produce his striking virgin wool garments handcrafted by descendants of the Incas, was underpinned by generations of sartorial tradition in his Afro-Caribbean family on St. Croix. His paternal great-great-great-great-grandmother, Azontha (1785-1857), born in West Africa and brought to St. Croix, Danish West Indies—enslaved—in 1796 at the age of 11, was so committed to her profession of seamstress at the Estate Annaly Plantation that she took the plantation manager, one Mr. Kirchoff, to court in 1821, shortly after giving birth to twins, to prevent him from sending her to toil in the sugarcane fields. She prevailed.
Carl Augustus Messer (1890-1971), James’ maternal grandfather, wielded both bodkin and upholstery needle in his trades as saddler and maker of the jute sacks used to pack sugar for export at the Estate Bethlehem Plantation on St. Croix.
Four of Messer’s five daughters became known island-wide for their exceptional dressmaking skills, James’ mother Evelyn Messer James, never abandoning her skills despite earning two university degrees on mainland U.S.A.
So when a young Wayne James, the penultimate of 10 children, started exhibiting an interest in the fashion industry, his curiosity was embraced by the family as part and parcel to being a James.
Standing 6’4” with broad shoulders and a tiny 28-inch waist at age 16, he joined the Caribbean Couture Modeling Agency (CC Models), where he distinguished himself on account of his extraordinary elegance, and immersed himself in the beauty industry by routinely reading GQ. Vogue, and Ebony, voraciously absorbing everything from ad layouts to fashion shoot styling to editorial writing. So, by the time James—a product of the island’s Catholic school system—graduated from St. Joseph High School in 1979, he already had a fundamental understanding of fashion as art and business.
Immediately upon graduation, James embarked upon his undergraduate studies in English literature and art history at Bradley University, where he would choreograph an annual, campus-wide fashion show in honor of Romeo B. Garrett Week, a celebration of the university’s first African-American Master’s Degree recipient. And to hone his fashion retail/merchandising experience, which he began while working at clothing stores on St. Croix during his high school years, James worked with various retailers in Peoria, IL, and oftentimes lent his exotic Caribbean voice to radio ads for retail outlets in the midwestern town where exotic accents were still a curiosity.
Besides being a member of the Student Senate, a member of the dormitory staff, a member of various honor societies, and president of the International Students Organization, the largest organization on campus, it was James’ exceptional instinct for style and fashion that had established him as a BMOC (Big Man On Campus) by the time he graduated—magna cum laude to boot—from Bradley in 1983.
The Birth of the Business:
In order to transition, uninterrupted, from law school to fashion industry, James had to time his fashion debut as a fall/winter 1987 collection. And, as such, he had to start his fashion business while in the throes of his law studies such that he would graduate in May and be able to fill orders two months later in July (as his law school classmates were studying for the Bar Exam!). But it was those formative years, when he was immersed both in his studies and planning his debut collection, that he developed that uncanny grit with grace that would characterize him throughout his life. By 1989, a mere two years into the world of fashion, Washington Post fashion editor Nina Hyde had declared James “one of the rising stars amongst young New York designers”; that same year, in recognition of Georgetown University’s bicentennial, James was commissioned to redesign the liturgical vestments for the Jesuits, a widely publicized commission that led to a papal commission, James thereby joining Henri Matisse (1869-1954) as the only two artists to have been commissioned by The Vatican to design papal vestments; and by the mid-1990s, his work had been featured, for example, in the New York Times, Women’s Wear Daily, GQ, Ebony, Essence, Bergdorf’s, Nordstrom’s, Saks Jandel, and Victoire’s, the famous French boutique chain that launched designer Patrick Kelly’s career in France.
In the early 2000s, when the internet was still in its infancy, it became evident that the future of the company would rest upon online marketing: worldwide distribution; fewer middlemen; direct contact with customers; more artistic freedom. Enter: The Wayne James Concepts Store. Twenty-five years in the making, the mission of the online enterprise is to offer cutting-edge design concepts directly to customers, while maintaining the elegant customer service of traditional, upscale department stores: exceptional craftmanship; gift-ready packaging; free shipping. And to that end, the parent company, Wayne James, Ltd., began painstakingly divesting itself of its long-standing business model of the wholesaling of women’s designer sportswear/special-occasion garments and, instead, began curating an accessories-based product line more suitable for online selling, with fewer possibilities for returns due to sizing, fit, etc. And it was while curating and market-testing the online collection between 2002 and 2024 that the company began transitioning into a men’s lifestyle-based enterprise, beginning with the 2016 publication of James’ critically acclaimed Manly Manners: Lifestyle & Modern Etiquette for the Young Man of the 21st Century, the first of a 3-volume, 2000-page treatise on modern men’s comportment.
Today, the online collection, available at www.WayneJames.com , features a wide array of men’s lifestyle products: 3 gender-neutral fragrances (Rebellion, Freedom, and Celebration); Wayne James’ Seasonings for Men, a 5-blend line of herb-and-spice dry-rubs specifically formulated for the modern man; Wayne James’ Carnival Seasonings, a 5-blend line of all-natural seasonings available in conventional and organic/Kosher-certified formulations; a 2-piece leather luggage collection made of exquisite full-grain leather; the Wayne James Scarf Collection, featuring leather, linen, and fur scarves; a home furnishing collection featuring hand-painted porcelain platters and a gentleman’s leather bedside mat; a 6-item Gentlemen’s Culinary Ensemble that includes a lifetime-guaranteed leather apron and complementary leather placemats/drink coasters; a one-size-fits-most gentlemen’s robe made of the finest Irish linen on the market. Except for the fragrances, which are made in Grasse, France, all other Wayne James products are made in the United States of America, utilizing American-sourced raw materials whenever possible. (Because of the nature of fragrances, some customers preferring to smell/test before purchasing, several key wholesale accounts have been established with fragrance retailers in order to enable a more intimate knowledge of the fragrances.)
The Why:
Wayne James was born into a family of entrepreneurs. His mother, Evelyn Messer James (1931-2022), owned a retail textile outlet and, in her later years, established a palm grove which today sells fully grown palms to landscape architects. James’ father, Gustav A. James (1919-1983), owned a second-generation variety store that sold everything from outboard motors to dressmaking notions. And I. Gateword James (1893-1978), Wayne James’ grandfather, trained as a chemist in Scandinavia; returned to his native island of St. Croix and became a gentleman farmer, owning three plantations during his lifetime; produced a licorice-based liqueur; designed, manufactured, and exported tin utensils to Scandinavia; and collaborated with other livestock onwers on St. Croix in the development of the award-winning Senepol breed of cattle that is native to the island.
Thus, in the mid-1980s, amidst the culture of the “glass ceiling,” “the color barrier,” and “the old-boy network” that emerged from the integration that occasioned the Civil Rights Movement, James effortlessly embraced the family philosophy that “Job security begins with self-employment.” He had long been audience to family discussions on the importance of the “fearlessness of youth.” His burning desire for professional autonomy, therefore, came second-nature and served as the catalyst for his tenacious embrace of the beauty industry.
After serving as Senator of the United States Virgin Islands (2009-2011), James went off to Italy to write his three-volume treatise on modern men’s manners. And it was while in Italy, in 2016, that he was arrested by Italian authorities on behalf the Government of the United States for the “fiscal mishandling” of $72,000. After serving a 30-month sentence pursuant to a contested conviction that has worked its way all the way to the Supreme Cout of the United States and is presently back in the District Court of the Virgin Islands on grounds of violations of James’ 5th and 6th Amendment Constitutional Rights, he emerged from federal custody, phoenix-like, rebuilding his business one design at a time with the grit and grace he first cultivated back in the 1980s when starting his business while in law school and with the dogged determination instilled in him from his family. And in September of 2024, he established WayneJamesLtd.com LLC and launched www.waynejames.com in June of 2025.
Creating Legacy:
Now 64 years old, James is acutely aware of the importance of legacy: very few fashion designers endure beyond death. And the few who do tend to have legacy products, fragrances and beauty products oftentimes being the cornerstones of those brands. It is to that end that James positioned his fragrance division as one of the cornerstones of his new company. And after the official December 30, 2024, launch on St Croix at Bougainvillea @ 41 King, James is seeing the first signs of repeat customers, suggesting that his inaugural fragrances—Rebellion, Freedom, Celebration—are here to stay. And plans are underway to launch three additional fragrances—Paparazzi, Incognito, Illuminati—in December of 2028.
Product/Marketing Niche:
In 2011, when Wayne James accepted the arduous task of writing a treatise on modern men’s manners, it was because of an obvious dearth of, coupled with a desire for, etiquette books for men written by men. And as the project crystalized and marketing strategies were being implemented in 2015, James became aware of an overall need for Andro-centric products supported by decidedly masculine marketing. Men’s Lifestyle needed its own Martha Stewart, and James set out to define that niche so that he could subsequently fill it. On the heels of the books came his Wayne James’ Seasonings for Men. And it was while market-testing his Celebration fragrance as a fragrance for men that he became aware that its appeal was gender-fluid and that creating gender-neutral fragrances would broaden their appeal without compromising his mission of men’s marketing. As part of the company’s wholistic men’s marketing strategy, James is writing Manly Meals: Recipes for the Modern Man, a cookbook for men, the recipes of which will incorporate the Wayne James’ Seasonings for Men and utilize the designer’s Gentlemen’s Culinary Ensemble for the presentation of meals. And plans are underway for the Blind Chef, a social media-based cooking program for men helmed by James, who is officially blind, the hook being that if a blind man can cook, so can any man. Thus, when www.WayneJames.com was launched in June of 2025, its target audience was bullseye-clear: men.
Accomplishments/Milestones:
In a January 14, 2025, Black Enterprise article titled “Renowned Designer Launches 3 Gender-Neutral Fragrances In St. Croix,” the author chronicles a few of James’ accomplishments in his 40-year journey in the fashion industry. But his accolades extend way beyond the selvage of style. In July of 1998, in celebration of the 150th anniversary of Emancipation in the Danish West Indies (present-day U.S. Virgin Islands), he established the Homeward Bound Foundation, the organization that on July 3, 1999, lowered the Middle Passage Monument onto the floor of the Atlantic Ocean in honor of the estimated millions of enslaved Africans who perished en route to and at the hands of Trans-Atlantic Slavery between the 15th and 19th centuries, the initiative earning James the International Humanitarian Medal in Paris. In 2021 James directed the critically acclaimed 3-part docufilm titled Going…Going…Gone: The Grandeur of Golden-Age Cuba, one review commanding the front page of Havana Times. And the designer’s collection of Danish West Indies colonial antiques, rare paintings, books and maps, and other artifacts is considered one of the world’s finest, elements of the collection oftentimes displayed for public benefit.
Throughout its eventful 40-year-long history, Wayne James, Ltd., has managed to remain 100% Black-owned, weathering the vicissitudes of fashion through re-inventions, the occasional hiatus, expansions, contractions, and diversifications. But ever-mindful of the ephemera of fame and the fleeting nature of fortune, WayneJamesLtd.com LLC was established in 2025 with the foremost mission of solidifying a legacy that will enable the next generation of ownership to surpass the one that preceded it. And while the success of one season’s fashion collection does not ensure the success of the next, legacy products such as the Wayne James Seasonings for Men and the three gender-neutral fragrances, Rebellion, Freedom, and Celebration, have already begun realizing repeat purchases. Legacy, thus, is on its way. And with directed efforts towards social media marketing, the future looks bright.
50%-Off “Black Friday” to New Year’s Day Sale at WayneJames.com
St. Croix-born fashion designer Wayne James is pleased to announce a 50%-Off, website-wide sale at www.WayneJames.com . The sale will run from Black Friday (November 28, 2025) until January 1, 2026. And shipping is free to all addresses within the United States and its territories, including U.S. military addresses.
The Wayne James Concepts Store, the designer’s flagship online outlet, features eight (8) product categories: the coveted Carnival Seasoning, now expanded to five blends; James’ recently launched gender-neutral fragrances, Rebellion, Freedom, and Celebration; Wayne James’ Seasonings for Men, a 5-blend line of dry-rubs formulated for the modern man who cooks; the travel ensemble, a 2-piece luggage collection featuring a carry-on bag and a matching passport wallet, each made of luxurious full-grain leather, the absolute highest grade of leather; a home furnishings department that offers a 6-piece collection of hand-painted porcelain platters depicting the Caribbean’s most iconic flowers; James’ classic linen robe, made in New York City of impeccable Irish linen; a 6-item Gentlemen’s Culinary Ensemble, including a robust leather apron perfect for outdoor grilling and indoor gourmet meals; and a collection of leather, linen, and fur scarves for the discerning gentleman. Each product is supported by videos and photographs detailing the product in use and from different vantage points.
All purchases are shipped “gift-ready”: beautifully presented with luxurious Wayne James shopping bags, company-colors tissue paper, and, for some products, with burlap sack packaging, reminiscent of St. Croix’s sugarcane history. “Our online-shopping experience is unique,” James said. “We offer department store and upscale boutique gift packaging with the convenience of online shopping.”
On the drawing board since 2002, when online shopping was still in its infancy, the Wayne James Concepts Store was officially launched in June of 2025 for the principal purpose of allowing the designer to introduce cutting-edge style concepts directly to consumers, bypassing the industry’s middlemen. “The consumer is the ultimate arbiter of style and trends,” James said. “And the online store enables direct dialogue between my ideas and customers’ desires.”
Since its founding in 1984, when James was a first-year law student at prestigious Georgetown University, the Wayne James brand has been synonymous with timeless designs executed with world-class craftsmanship.
“This 50%-off sale allows everyone to find something at an affordable price,” James said. “It is my pleasure to make my art available to everyone everywhere,” he concluded.
St. Croix-born fashion designer Wayne James has officially launched his new website, www.waynejames.com . The “Wayne James Concepts Store” is the renowned designer’s first official foray into online marketing—after 40 years of wholesaling to world-class retailers such as Bergdorf Goodman in New York, Nordstrom’s, Saks Jandel, and Victoire’s, the Paris-based boutique chain that launched the career of designer Patrick Kelly in France in the 1980s.
Decades in the making, James conceived of the Wayne James Concepts Store in the late 1990s, when the internet was still in its infancy. “It became obvious to me in the early 2000s that online marketing would be the future,” James said. “So, I started painstakingly designing and editing a collection that would lend itself to remote purchasing.”
And 25 years later, the Wayne James Concepts Store is is veritable tour de force, offering everything from James’ award-winning Carnival Seasonings (now in 5 blends); to the designer’s recently unveiled three (3) gender-neutral fragrances, namely REBELLION, FREEDOM, and CELEBRATION; to an exquisite leather luggage collection; to a 6-item gentlemen’s culinary ensemble that features everything from a leather apron and placemats to a 5-bottle giftbox of James’ Wayne James’ Seasonings for Men, a line of dry-rubs specifically created for the modern man who must cook for himself and his family. The Wayne James Concepts Store also offers the designer’s classic leather scarves, a compelling collection of hand-painted decorative porcelain platters, and James’ luxurious linen robes, hand-crafted in New York City of the finest linen from Ireland.
“The Wayne James Concepts Store allows me to offer cutting-edge designs directly to the consumer, the ultimate arbiters of taste and style,” James said. “The online store will have its forever classics, but from time to time, we will introduce fashion-forward concepts—without the traditional constraints of department-store editing.”
But the Wayne James Concepts Store remains true to the century-old department store tradition of breathtakingly beautiful merchandising and packaging: Each product is presented via world-class photos taken from different angles and supporting videos that show the products in active use. And in keeping with the department store tradition of luxurious packaging, each product is shipped “gift-ready,” with Wayne James signature glossy bags, company-color tissue paper, and when appropriate, with authentic drawstring burlap-sack packaging. And shipping is free to all United States and United States military addresses (including to territories and other possessions.)
The Wayne James Concepts Store website is a collaborative effort. “I wanted a chic, modern, user-exciting website. Allied Technologies of Tennessee did a masterful job at creating an uber-engaging webstore. French graphics artist Pauline Lieb designed much of the packaging of the various products. The team of Robert Jamison and Colin Douglas masterfully captured the details of the various products through photographs and videos. And the muse of the garment collection was Puerto Rican model Brett Rivera,” James said.
And several products are queueing-up to make their debuts: the Island Belts Collection, with topographically correct island-shaped buckles hand-crafted of sterling silver and 18K gold; the much-anticipated Wayne James Bedpost Bracelet; a line of 7-fold silk ties; an exquisite linen guayabera; and the 2029 launch of three more fragrances—PAPARAZZI,INCOGNITO, and ILLUNIATTI.
“The Wayne James Concepts Store makes for an exciting future for the company. We have shared our designs with the world for 40 years, and we look forward to sharing our concepts with consumers for many years to come,” James concluded.
Wayne James World Explorer Grant Postponed Indefinitely Amidst Trave-Insecurity
The 2025 Wayne James World Explorer Grant has been postponed indefinitely amidst the Trump administration’s international travel bans; border insecurity resulting from seemingly random or targeted detentions; student visa revocations and newly imposed restrictions; and I.C.E. (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) raids, all of which have converged to create a general apprehension towards travel to the United States. The application deadline for the 2025 Grant cycle was June 30, 2025.
“The decision to postpone indefinitely the 2025 Grant Award came after much consideration,” said Wayne James, founder of the Wayne James World Explorer Grant. “There have been too many inquiries regarding the safety of world travel. Thus—even if regrettably—it was the painful decision of management to err on the side of caution. The last thing the Grant needs is to have a recipient encounter mobility issues during what has been touted as ‘the travel opportunity of a lifetime’,” James added.
The brainchild of fashion designer and former U.S. Virgin Islands senator Wayne James, the Grant was inaugurated in 2024, with the first grant award scheduled to be announced in August of 2025. Anyone 18 years or older—from anywhere in the world—could apply online for the U.S-based grant. An award of $50,000 USD would have been given in quarterly disbursements to the first-prize recipient to travel the world for one year, visiting a minimum of five (5) of the seven (7) continents, spending at least two(2) months on each continent visited. Grant winners would have been able to plan their own itineraries. There was no fee for applying for the Grant, unless applicants opted for the “expedited application process,” in which case the application fee was $20-$25 USD. Any applicants who paid the expedited application fee for the 2025 grant cycle will be fully refunded.
“The Wayne James World Explorer Grant is a beautiful project aimed at raising awareness of the oneness of humanity,” James said. “The Grant’s motto is ‘See the world, love the world, help the world,’ and we remain wholeheartedly committed to that mission. The Grant was met with enthusiasm worldwide and it is with a heavy heart that we have reached the decision to postpone indefinitely the awarding of the Grant. But the freedom and safety of our Grant recipients is our primary concern.
“We remain committed to the initiative, and we will monitor the political climate to determine if and when the Grant should be reactivated for future grant cycles,” James concluded.
Fashion Designer Wayne James to Unveil 3 New Fragrances on St. Croix on December 30th
It was a multi-national endeavor: bottles designed in Milan; botanicals flown in from across the globe; fragrances blended in Grasse; packaging designed and crafted in Paris; and everything coordinated by fashion designer Wayne James from his bases in New York and Miami. But when the St. Croix-born couturier had to decide on where to unveil his three new fragrances—Rebellion, Freedom, and Celebration—it was a forgone conclusion that the World Premiere would take place on St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands.
So, on Monday, December 30th, 2024, at the elegant Bougainvillea @ 41 King fragrance store in historic Christiansted, James’ three signature fragrances will be revealed to the world.
And no detail has been overlooked—from the upscale grosgrain-handle shopping bags with company-colors tissue paper, to Paris-designed banners that will adorn the façade of the store, to a cocktail reception scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m., the event is slated to unfold as a classic “à la Wayne James event”: chic from start to finish. “Tek Dat!” (St. Croix’s creole for “Take That!”)
“I’ve told all my ‘Wayne James Girls’ of yore to don their vintage Wayne James outfits—if they can fit into them!” James declared. “And rumor has it that half the island is on ‘crash diet alert’ to do just that. It’s going to be a fabulous event—just in time for the Christmas holidays.
“The decision to unveil the fragrances on St. Croix occurred organically,” James said. “Janine de Chabert Schuster is daughter of the late Rita de Chabert Schuster and niece of Shirley de Chabert Highfield, two of my earliest and biggest fans. So when Janine called and said that she had heard about the upcoming fragrances and wanted to feature them at her store, it was a no-brainer for me that the fragrances should be prominently featured at Bougainvillea @ 41 King,” James said.
“I wanted the names of the fragrances to conjure up emotions in their wearers,” James continued. “We can all identify with ‘Rebellion’ and ‘Freedom’ and ‘Celebration’.”
And the fragrances are not only distinguishable from other fragrances on the market, but also from each other. Rebellion takes one on an olfactory journey through the Analy rainforest of St. Croix or the sugarcane fields of Cuba with aromas of the skin of green mangoes paired with hints of coffee, molasses, tobacco, and charcoal, topped with suggestions of hog plum (Spondias mombin). Freedom is a refreshing, citrus-based fragrance, with the skin of grapefruit at its base, cedar wood and rosemary as center-notes, and guavaberry (Myrciaria floribunda) as a tantalizing top note. Celebration is a mystical fragrance, at once ancient and modern, and simultaneously citrus-, spice-, and fruit-based as it masterfully combines the age-old fragrance staples of frankincense and myrrh with lime, passion fruit, Jamaican ginger, and indications of Grenada nutmeg.
“Each fragrance has its own unique aroma profile,” James said. “Everyone will be able to find ‘his’ or ‘her’ fragrance amongst the three.”
And speaking of “his” and “hers,” the fragrances are de facto gender-neutral, product testing revealing that they are equally enjoyable by both men and women.
“My initial intention was to create fragrances for men—in keeping with my transitioning Wayne James, Ltd., from predominantly female luxury products to male-based,” James said. “But as we tested the fragrances, it became evident early on that gender-neutral marketing was the way to go. So, rather than marketing them as eaux de parfums, we went with eaux de toilettes since men traditionally associate perfumes with women, while women embrace both terms, which, unbeknownst to many, are interchangeable terms based on industry regulations. I also wanted timeless, understated bottles that would appeal to anyone, and the packaging has been a hit with men, women, and everyone in between.”
Wayne James, Ltd., was born in 1984 while James was a first-year law student at prestigious Georgetown University in Washington, DC. Thus, the 2024 World Premiere of Rebellion, Freedom, and Celebration marks the tenacious designer’s 40th anniversary in the dog-eat-dog, cut-throat fashion industry. “For whoever thought they had seen the last of me: Surprise!” James said laughing out loud. “It ain’t over until God says it’s over. And I have painstakingly built a fashion house, product by product, that will endure long after I am gone.
“I’ve seen lots of ‘the next big things’ come and go in my 40 years in the rag trade,” James said. “So, it is especially meaningful to mark this momentous anniversary with legacy products: fragrances. Many a designer would give his or her proverbial ‘eye tooth’ to be able to bring a fragrance to market. I’m bringing three at once! Not bad! Tek Dat!” James concluded.
“Sugar Daddies, Boy Toys”: The Upcoming Reality TV Show by Fashion Designer Wayne James
Just when it seemed like every reality TV show under the sun has already been produced, St. Croix-born fashion designer Wayne James has come up with “Sugar Daddies, Boy Toys,” the Miami-based show that is likely to heat up even “Sun City.”
Unlike other dating-genre reality TV shows, where the protagonist, godlike, gets to determine the fate and future of the various contestants, in “Sugar Daddies, Boy Toys,” both Daddies and Boy Toys posses the power of selection—the way it is in the real world. Click here:https://youtu.be/IFq6XvoOhTQ
Season One begins with six vetted Daddies who must each have a net worth of at least $5 million dollars, and 15 drop-dead- gorgeous Boy Toys (ages 21-39) who have been selected from a pool of 60 quarter-finalists, then 30 semi-finalists, from around the world.
Then after a series of glamorous, fun-filled events—from spectacular masquerade ball to talent show to contestant-cooks dinner parties to Worth Avenue shopping sprees—comes the Grande Finale, where the choice comes down to the possibility of love everlasting versus the certainty of $100,000 in clean, cold cash.
The cosmopolitan city of Miami, with its breathtakingly beautiful beaches, scintillating nightlife, and gourmet restaurants and quaint bars, serves as the setting for the show.
“Sugar Daddies, Boy Toys” is a departure from the back-stabbing, throat-cutting, domestic drama that we have all come to know and despise about ‘reality’ TV shows,” says Wayne James, creator of the show. “This show is elegant, glamorous, eventful, and uniquely egalitarian. It is at once chess, poker, lotto, and love.”
Season One on-line auditions begin on November 1, 2024, and extend until February 28, 2026. Interested persons should apply at www.sugardaddiesboytoys.com where persons may also join the mailing list for periodic updates on the progress of the show and the fall of 2026 Grand Premiere.
“ ‘Sugar Daddies, Boy Toys’ is an envelope-pusher,” James said. “It’s the one reality TV show that’s been overlooked in plain view. Well, now it’s here. And the timing couldn’t be better,” James concluded.
