"Fashion designers move into the city's red-light district, part of efforts to clean up the area."
AMSTERDAM: Until recently, the only clothes for sale along the Oudezijds Achterburgwal canal in this city's red-light district were of the black leather and silver studded variety. And the mannequins cavorting in the red windows couldn't really be considered dressed at all.
Then, late last month, the city of Amsterdam handed the keys to a notorious chain of brothels to some of the country's hottest young designers. And now, between the sex shops and kebab houses, are 18 elegant window displays featuring some of the best that Dutch fashion has to offer.
Redlight Fashion Amsterdam, as the initiative is called, has given 14 designers and two photographers the opportunity to work and live rent-free in the 17th-century buildings for one year.
"There was too much criminal activity in the area," said Lodewijk Asscher, the deputy mayor, who initiated the project. "We had tried numerous things to change it." . . .
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