Amsterdam (scroll down to read more)
Amsterdam pretty much invented the idea of the global hub, attracting travellers and traders since the 17th century. They all found swift satisfaction in the local ‘houses of pleasure’, which the city has been trying to manage ever since.
Prostitution was finally legalised in 2000, but more recently city authorities have become concerned that the local small-scale sex industry has been replaced by the more brutal business practices of international gangs. Over the last couple of years,
the city has worked with a local housing corporation to buy up some of the 17th-century buildings that still house the window brothels of the red light district, known as De Wallen. It wants to put them to other uses by adding bookshops, cafes, galleries and other more refined cultural and commercial draws to
the relentless parade of knocking shops.
The city aims to reduce the number of window brothels and find a better balance of the chic and the shady. The Redlight Fashion Amsterdam initiative is part of this creative re-use of the window brothels and has installed 19 designers and two fashion photographers in the workspaces once used by prostitutes – with tiled beds and strip lighting intact.
Originally designed as a year-long experiment, the project has already been extended once and is awaiting news of a further extension. It has also encouraged similar projects called Redlight Design and Redlight Art. Karlijn Bozon of HTNK, a fashion recruitment and consultancy behind the Redlight Fashion initiative, insists that it isn’t planning on forcing the working girls out of the area completely: ‘We want to keep the area raw and exciting.’
Writer: Alex Onderwater
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