Scantily clad prostitutes are being pushed out of their neon display windows by fashion mannequins in a battle for control of the busiest red-light district in Europe.

Young designers have been given 14 prime locations in Amsterdam to show their wares after clean-up campaigners bought the windows from a brothel owner known as Fat Charlie.

While the city authorities claim that they are trying simply to curb criminality and make the area less intimidating, the window owners and other businesses are preparing to fight against what they believe is a concerted effort to destroy the red-light zone.

In the first stage of the gentrification plan, the city took over 51 of the 300 or so windows, and a further clampdown is being prepared in what some locals fear is a morality-driven campaign against the sex industry.

“If you come to this area, you know what you are coming for – and it is not fashion,” Jan Broers, the owner of an hotel and eight prostitute windows, said. “I think this could be the end of the red-light district because there are some crazy people in the Government who think they can take control of the whole thing, not only the prostitutes but also the coffee shops.”

Window brothels were legalised in 2000 after years of tolerance. Red Thread, the union for prostitutes, argues that they are the safest way for its members to work. The women do not need a pimp to find customers or accommodation and they pay tax.

The city council claims that the famed Dutch permissiveness, which also turns a blind eye to cannabis being sold in coffee shops, is being exploited by organised crime.

The fashion designers will be allowed to stay rent-free for a year under the plan, which is being led by Lodewijk Asscher, the 33-year-old Deputy Mayor, who called for the phasing out of the red-light district in a book, New Amsterdam, but now says that he simply wants reform.

“This is sending a message that Amsterdam will always be a very exciting city, but without criminals,” he said, launching the fashion windows under the slogan “Buy the Dress, not the Woman”.

He added: “In the years after legalisation, we have not been successful enough in fighting money laundering and criminality.”

Amsterdam attracts ten million visitors a year, and much of this influx is associated with the red-light district. The Yab Yum, one of the best-known brothels, had its licence revoked and closed its doors this month because of the alleged involvement of gangland finance. Now the authorities are using a new tax law to check the books of Casa Rosso, the main erotic theatre.

Wim Boef, the spokesman of Platform 1012, the campaign group to save the red-light district, said: “Amsterdam is acting like a banana republic by using the law in this way. We are not happy with this fashion. We prefer the ladies – it is as simple as that.”

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