This project draws on aspects of research into the plight of women prostitutes working in Lal Batti areas of India. The project considers historical, contemporary and personal texts that form the basis of a creative synthesis. This synthesis is manifest in the design of five fabric-based artworks that seek to interpret issues of manipulation, entrapment, belonging, spirituality and demise. The project is located beyond the boundaries of fashion design. However, it involves an artistic fusion of garment construction, fabric and surface treatment. In doing this, the thesis seeks to give ‘voice’ to a political commentary that reaches beyond commercial uses of garments for display and protection.

This project draws on aspects of research into the plight of women prostitutes working in Lal Batti areas of India. The project considers historical, contemporary and personal texts that form the basis of a creative synthesis. This synthesis is manifest in the design of five fabric-based artworks that seek to interpret issues of manipulation, entrapment, belonging, spirituality and demise. The project is located beyond the boundaries of fashion design. However, it involves an artistic fusion of garment construction, fabric and surface treatment. In doing this, the thesis seeks to give ‘voice’ to a political commentary that reaches beyond commercial uses of garments for display and protection.

Att en destination utstrålar en stark och positiv image har blivit en viktig faktor för att attrahera turister. En negativ global image av en destination kan bidra till en minskad turism. I denna studie söks en förståelse för hur Amsterdams image påverkas av sex- och drogturismen i staden. Teorier som bemöter primära och sekundära turistattraktioner, sökandet efter nöjes/meningsfulla upplevelser och image segmentering har satts i relation med insamlat empiriskt material hämtat från två enkätundersökningar samt tre semi-strukturerade intervjuer. Studiens analys visar att sex- och drogturismen genererar både en positiv och negativ image för Amsterdam i koppling till vad som är moraliskt riktigt. Studien visar att sex- och drogimagen inte påverkar resenärers beslutprocess av att besöka staden.

“What is certain is that the question of […] re-making a landscape of prostitution in the city […] needs to be viewed as part of a changing, global discourse on the nature of contemporary cities” (Aalbers & Sabat 2012, p. 114).Prostitution – associated with well-known Red-Light Districts – has for a long time been seen as “a significant urban activity that relates to other economic and social functions of the city [and contributes] […] to the cognitive image of a city held by both residents and non-residents, even those who have never frequented them” (Ashworth, White & Winchester 1988, p. 201). It is therefore no surprise that within the neoliberal framework of inter-city competition, these once notorious districts, commonly associated with crime and violence, ascended into spaces of entertainment and consumption, neatly aligning with entrepreneurial city branding strategies. The Reeperbahn, Hamburg’s famous mile of sin, located within the district of St. Pauli is no exception to this rule. As a place traditionally located outside Hamburg’s social and physical city limits, it is nowadays frequented by thousands of tourists and party seekers, drawn in by the area’s myths and shady reputation (Khan 2012). Actively fostering the (economic) attractiveness of the so-called Kiez has long been part of Hamburg’s city politics and was reinforced with the creation of the Hamburg Brand Marketing Strategy in 2002, where the Entertainment Mile Reeperbahn alongside Hamburg’s Pulsating Scenes became two of the key success modules in branding the city. The repercussion this has had not only for the district and its inhabitants but specifically for the red-light industry has largely been understudied.This Master’s Thesis therefore, aims at studying the general effects of city branding, such as displacement and conflict over spatial uses in the face of Over-Tourism and re-development strategies. Looking at the specific case of the Reeperbahn, it closes the gap of the somewhat understudied effects of gentrification on St. Pauli’s unique culture. By interviewing different local stakeholders, conducting a broad literature review as well as undertaking field work, the Hamburg-St.-Pauli-Brand-Dialectic will be analyzed subsequently, showing, how the Hamburg Brand and the city as a whole have profited from St. Pauli’s reputation and what consequences this has had in turn for the district.