Renown Designer Launches Fragrances on St. Croix

St. Croix-born fashion designer Wayne James launched three fragrances last month at Bougainvillea Perfumery on St. Croix, adding to his list of creations since he began designing as a young man. Bougainvillea, the pink historic building on King Street specializes in fragrances and skin care products.

Coming from a long line of seamstresses, James picked up the sewing and designing easily. He perfected his skills in high school at St. Joseph’s School and while studying at Bradley University. When he was in his last year of law school at Georgetown Law Center, he had already started building his business — Wayne James Ltd.

“I showed my first collection on March 30, 1987, at the Anita Shapolsky Gallery at 99 Spring Street in SoHo,” he said. The New York media showed up at that event, and one week later, James sold his first collection to Bergdorf Goodman.

Since then, James has sold garments in fine stores worldwide, including Nordstrom’s, Victoire’s in Paris, and Saks Jandel in Washington, D.C.

In 2010, while he was a senator, James met Patrick Bodifee, a “nose” in the perfume world, while attending the Cannes Film Festival. As a result, “Rebellion,” “Freedom,” and “Celebration” are gender-neutral eau de toilettes. The three scents have notes of lime, sandalwood, ginger, nutmeg, passion fruit, grapefruit, sugar plums, wood and/or other aromatic oils.

Janine Schuster, owner of Bougainvillea, displays Wayne James’s new fragrances,
“Rebellion,” “Freedom,” and “Celebration” introduced to the world Dec. 30. (Source photo by Susan Ellis)

Over the years, James has used his creative talents to design a line of leather belts, Carnival Seasonings and wrote Manly Manners, an etiquette guide for modern men. He also shared his knowledge and taught several classes on local history used by tourist guides.

In 1999, James founded the Homeward Bound Foundation, which managed to lower a 17-foot wide, 12-foot tall Middle Passage Monument to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. It was a memorial to the millions of enslaved African people who died on the way to America. As a result, James was awarded the International Humanitarian Medal.

In 2008, James was elected to the Virgin Islands Legislature, where he served for two years. In 2018, he was found guilty of wire fraud and the theft of federal program funds totaling almost $90,000 while in the Senate.

He was sentenced to 30 months in prison. Since being released, he has appealed his conviction to the District Court, charging that his Fifth and Sixth Amendments were denied — the right to present witnesses, effective counsel, and due process. He also has appealed to the Supreme Court.

While serving time, Pensacola, Florida prison officials failed to provide the medications for glaucoma James needed and requested, and by 2020, he was blind.

After his release, he sued the federal government in 2024 for $17,250 million. From the undisclosed settlement, he has set aside $50,000 a year as a grant for any adult to travel the world.

James said his entire life’s work has been based on his vision, and now that it’s gone, he relies on his sense of smell, but he still types 90 words a minute and continues to write.

Despite his limitation, during the next year, he will launch all three fragrances throughout the territory and then worldwide.

Hortense Rowe and Gerville Larsen inspect bottles of Wayne James’s fragrance during the launch event at Bougainvillea Dec. 30. (Source photo by Susan Ellis)

On Feb. 15, shoppers can purchase a leather carry-on, a luxurious bathrobe, a leather scarf, Manley Man (three volumes), the History of St. Croix Cuisine and other upscale items developed over the last 20 years at www.WayneJamesLtd.com. James is also finishing up a reality series for YouTube.

“A lot of people thought this conviction would derail me, but they were wrong,” he said, adding that even the “deliberate indifference” didn’t take him down “when they sat back and let me go blind,” James said.