Sex World is gone. After three decades, the downtown Minneapolis adult shop shut down suddenly this past June, ending in a multi-day blowout sale that I absolutely participated in. Once considered the center of the Minneapolis’s Red Light District, Sex World was a beacon for all things adult industry, a staple for strippers working the surrounding clubs, and the site of peepshows, protests, and curious passersby. While the red light remains flickering downtown (for now), a potential new light has ignited in Minneapolis, and this time it’s lavender.
In a section of Lyn-Lake, a trio of queer, kinky, community-owned businesses thrive: Smitten Kitten, Bondesque, and Twin Cities Leather (TCL).
The newest of the three, TCL is a small leatherworking business that has been around in various iterations for 16 years, newly re-homed in the Umbra Arts Building right across from Bondesque on West Lake Street. The acquisition of that location was both timely and intentional.
The folks who run TCL, Karri Joe Plowman and Kurt Patton (along with their rad publicist, Mikayla Stanek, who also represents Smitten Kitten), are reimagining what community and commerce can look like.
“We like to call it a Lavender District, and it’s something we’ve even talked with elected officials about, that this could be something we’ve never had in the Twin Cities,” says Plowman. “And although it’s not an officially designated cultural area, by using the term ‘Lavender District,’ it has the long-term ability to sell [the idea] and build allyship.”
“We don’t have an explicit gayborhood in this city,” Kurt says. Which may be true, but my personal read is that we're currently forming one here in Lyn-Lake, which is directly relevant to my interests—take my money please!
“When we made the conscious choice of moving over here, we chatted with the other stores around. We know a lot of people who rent here, sex therapists, other people in this building and realized how much queerdom is already here,” says Plowman.
Reimagining Commerce and Community
TCL, Smitten Kitten, and Bondesque, along with others on their stretch of Lyn-Lake, have been in relationship with one another for years, helping keep their customers happy and each others’ businesses thriving.
According to Patton, there’s an intentionality in the business model that allows TCL and the other kinky businesses to specialize in a particular thing and collaborate across ownership and staff to create niches that complement each other without stepping on each others’ toes.
“We routinely send customers back and forth to each other,” Plowman says. Stanek adds that they'll often look out onto the street and see people with bags from all three stores: one black bag, one orange bag, and one red bag. “That’s the essence of the district,” they say. “Everybody is going to all of them.”
Let’s say someone comes to the Lavender District looking for an outfit and some kinky accoutrement for a themed party. Given its reputation, they’re likely going to stop at Bondesque first. Bondesque is great for mainstream sizes and for latex, but has limited patent-leather wearables; they can refer that customer to TCL, which makes custom leather goods to accommodate that customer’s request. In turn, TCL can (and sometimes will) offer a discount for that customer if they first buy something from Bondesque or Smitten Kitten. That intrigued customer can then zip around the corner to Smitten Kitten, learn about the Gloryhole Games, and be hooked forever.
“We really believe in community first,” Plowman says.
This fact is evident through the Patreon-funded Community Room that TCL rents out to local groups, including a Kinksters in Recovery group and the Kink Accessibility Network, as well as the Free Food Shelf offered in the space. (Anytime a store has a mutual aid offering like this, I’m immediately more inclined to shop there.) Smitten Kitten does something similar, offering free harm reduction supplies and products, which warms my harm reductionist heart.
Plowman's experience in the business has brought him some critical insight into running a brick-and-mortar in 2025.
“Sex World, Fantasy Gifts… these were giants in our industry. But our industry has changed. Our direction is new,” he says. “We’re 100% Indigenous People of Color owned, and we’re local, and we lead with that. It makes all the difference when someone can try something on and leave with it on their body, and this is something the Sex Worlds would not talk about 20, 25 years ago; you wouldn’t talk about the back-of-house. But now, we lead with it.”
“Authenticity makes all the difference here,” he continues. People want what we’re doing and that’s the future of merchandising—there’s something else I’m buying into, which has a ton of value [beyond the shelf].”
TCL has been cataloguing leather history in the Twin Cities, which can be viewed here and in-store on their Leather History Wall. And Umbra Arts, the building housing TCL, is confirmed to have three additional queer-owned, indie businesses taking space in the Lavender District in early 2026.
What Minneapolis lost in Sex World nostalgia, it’s gaining tenfold in queer-owned intentionality, collaboration, and care. If the Lavender District is the blueprint, the future of adult retail isn’t just bright—it’s lavender-tinted and community-built.
Land o’ Lusts is a love letter to the bohemian underbelly of the Twin Cities. In each installment, writer Melodie KG—a Minneapolis-based consultant, nonprofit leader, and adult industry professional—seeks to dispel myths, uphold truths, and inspire conversations that reduce stigma for local sex workers, erotic professionals, risqué artists, and other deviants.
Have an idea for a story or profile? Interested in being interviewed? Have a (hopefully not literally) burning sex question? Reach out to me at contact@melodie-kg.com.
