Despite a proposal in New York and a wedding in Las Vegas, James can usually be found in London running her art gallery on Greek Street: Soho Revue (the name is a nod to the Raymond Revuebar, the nation’s first topless dancing club). Why a strip club, you ask? It was founded by her grandfather: the porn publisher and property magnate Paul Raymond, who began his career as a Clacton Pier mind-reader but had amassed an estimated £650 million net worth by the time he died in 2008. James and her older half-sister, Fawn, inherited 80 per cent of his empire, famously making her richer than the late Queen.
The wedding’s location in Las Vegas is probably reminiscent of the Soho of Raymond’s heyday, when it was a dazzling epicentre of the adult entertainment industry and bohemian subculture. James and her fiancé gathered roughly 40 guests for a ceremony at the Boneyard of the Neon Museum, home to more than 250 unrestored, retired neon signs. Afterwards, celebrations moved to the city’s storied Thriller Villa, a Spanish Revival mansion known both for housing the Liberace Foundation and for its connection to Michael Jackson, who stayed there before his planned residency. The name felt especially fitting given the couple’s UK wedding will take place on Halloween. Likewise, since their London engagement party featured an Elvis impersonator, a Las Vegas counterpart was inevitable. “There’s a lot of tying in happening,” James tells Vogue over Zoom a few weeks before flying to Nevada. “I’m feeling like Taylor Swift with all the Easter eggs.”
