Whilst perhaps not the most palatable subject of post-supper conversation, prostitution is an issue that tends to rear its head at most of my dinner parties, and as such it’s been something of a relief to reveal myself as a bit of an expert on the subject of late, following an impromptu visit to Amsterdam’s Red Light district.

Organised – ever so slightly bizarrely – by the National Gallery earlier this year, the trip was proposed as a bid to highlight the changing face of the Red Light district in relation to one of the gallery’s recent acquisitions – the grizzly, Red-light inspired Hoerngracht installation by American pre-Pop maestros Ed and Nancy Keinholz.

Although the work itself was conspicuously absent, the chance to see a little more of Amsterdam’s ample underbelly proved too exciting to ignore. A trade hub for the past 400 years, Amsterdam has long attracted those looking for a quick fix at the end of a long trip – whether a 45-minute Ryanair flight can still be counted is open to debate – but these days, things in the ‘Dam are really beginning to change.

My first point of call was the home of 60-something ex-prostitute turned photographer Metje Blaak.  Draping herself seductively over an expansive white bed, Blaak paints a positively bucolic picture of her life in the game, placing herself on a par with the local baker – providing ‘social sex’ for the community.

Fully legalised back in 2007, the Amsterdam City Council – under the guise of the 1012 regeneration project – is now wielding full control over the sex industry. Planning to ‘dismantle the criminal infrastructure’ and, in their own words, return a ‘chic and shady’ sense of balance to the community, brothels are closing left, right and centre.

With plans for a Las Ramblas style red carpet from Central Station into the Red Light District featuring ‘a Harrods of Amsterdam’, the city has called in creative consultants HTNK to commission up-and coming Dutch fashion designers to fill the ever-emptying windows before squatters set in.

There is certainly some interesting stuff on show. With black, red and aquamarine 3D-print tunic dresses from …andbeyond, and avant-garde masks, dolls and out-there streetwear from the omni-pierced Bas Kosters – there is talent a-plenty.  Though the prostitutes tend not to agree, as Metje reveals in her husky, filed-off tones – ‘the girls don’t like the mannequins, they make them feel self-conscious’

Artists are also getting a look-in with the Red Light Art scheme. Producing less in-your-face window displays, the artists live, breathe and work in the ex-brothels – Dutch/French artist Laurence Aegerter for instance, has transformed her space into everything from a temporary Turkish snack-bar to a golf club during her year long tenure.

Despite all this, the artists and fashion designers on board are only too aware of their tentative position within the municipal machine. In reality, their residencies are mere stopping points en route to the brothel-that-was, being transformed into a prime piece of real estate.

Even considering the range of creative input being pumped into the area, prostitution remains a pivotal part of Amsterdam’s culture, and one can’t help but wonder whether the creativity would be better spent elsewhere – working alongside the sex industry, rather than in place of it.

That said, streets lined with seedy British stag haunts and spaced-out skunk dives could certainly do with an injection of good bars, clubs and restaurants, which are surprisingly lacking.

The National Gallery will be bringing over Kienholtz Hoerengracht piece this November. An expansive, walk-in tableau depicting Amsterdam’s Red Light District in the 80’s, the work is a gruesome theater of dim lights, raw squalor and buyable bodies – not far off from the Red Light district itself, however the brothel owners may protest otherwise.