Sartorially weaving their way through bhodrota (respectability): Georgette sarees, bangles and selling sex in a Kolkata neighbourhood

In this excerpt, I unpack my field notes from the day to reveal the ways in which female sex workers in Kalighat, a red-light area embedded in a middleclass neighbourhood in Kolkata, West Bengal, India, negotiate middle-class norms of respectability and female propriety. Specifically, I focus on how the women navigate and manipulate sartorial norms which are imposed on them and their work to their social and economic advantage.