In New York and Los Angeles.
There's a very unusual party called the Fude Dinner Experience.
Like the name doesn't tell you much doesn't sound strange.
But apparently at these events, strangers get together and
eat, drink and chat while completely naked.
I don't really get it, but I don't begrudge anyone else who's in, into this.
We'll tell you how attendees describe the parties in just a bit.
But first, some more details on this unusual gathering and how it came to be.
So the Fude Dinner Experience is the brainchild of Charlie and
Max, an artist and model.
Because obviously, I mean, what kind of people are like?
I can't wait to be naked, likely models.
Now, Max says that the idea first came to her when she and her friends decided
on a whim just on a whim to hang out naked in their apartment in 2014.
I mean, who doesn't do that on a whim?
She told the New York Times quote, it felt so good to be like whatever.
I'm hanging out with my best friends in my rawest form with my body and
this is not as scary or weird as I would expect.
It just felt so free.
Ever since then, Max gets nude whenever possible.
Let me just remind you, Max is, in fact, a model.
Max started experimenting more with nudity going topless to certain bars.
What having parties and greeting guests naked?
Now she says she is naked whenever possible.
This is a lifestyle.
I live on and offline.
She said during events and after everyone goes home.
So Max claims that her naked dinners which she started in 2020 always sell out.
And that women around the world ask her to host naked dinners in their city for now.
Though the dinners are mainly in Los Angeles and
New York, that a lot more details to get to including some testimonials
from individuals who have attended such dinner parties.
But I wanna jump to you first was considering this is a New Yorker and
how this all started in New York.
Do you have any insight into this culture?
Is this something that, yeah, you have any further details on?
>> Yeah, this kind of reeks of that New Brooklyn crowd
that appeared in New York City around 050607.
And essentially a bunch of people who sort of got priced out of Manhattan.
And it was just like, well, Brooklyn is actually kind of cool and they populated
areas like Williamsburg and Green Point and Fort Greene and Clinton Hill.
And people who have been to Bushwick is a freaking rest haven for
this New Brooklyn set where you would go to like restaurants.
And like the cups or the cookware was unconventional.
You'd be drinking out of a bottle cap or something weird like that.
This is of that cohort.
It's very obvious.
But these people I'll give you an example an at one time cuz back in 2012,
I was dating a woman who lived in Williamsburg.
And we went to this brunch spot and we sat in a brunch, we were probably there for
an hour and the couple next to us sat head to head like this.
Their foreheads touching each other and their palms on top of each other.
They sat like that for an hour straight was, this was them,
I don't know, connecting.
I don't know if this new AG sort of bohemian crap.
This is all of that cohort, these are not people who have
ever been purse snatched on the J train in 1993.
If you feel what I'm saying, this is all new Brooklyn Crapola.
So I'm not surprised by any of this.
I promise you.
>> I just don't get why this has to be a thing.
It's just anyway, what I mean by that is I'm not against it.
I just don't know why it has to be like a branded thing.
I guess it's because we live in America where everything needs to be
a branded thing.
But the dining.
>> Needs to be branded Anna.
But it's part of everybody, this idea that we're progressing the self.
I'm moving past the norms of society.
The norms of society.
>> [CROSSTALK] Society makes sense.
Like I look.
>> Some of them out at a house party makes sense.
>> Listen, I have no problem with women going topless at a beach, right?
I have no problem with women breastfeeding in public.
But I gotta be honest with you, I don't wanna go to bars and see like everywhere,
like literal, bare, naked, everywhere, right?
I have them, I love them.
I think they're beautiful but there's a time and a place you get what I'm saying?
Same with men, I don't wanna see a bunch of shirtless.
Well, I don't, it depends.
All right. Anyway, moving on.
No, I know.
No, but in all seriousness, I don't wanna see topless men or women at a bar, right?
Again, time and place with this, it's in a private setting.
And so if this is what they're into, great, go for it.
The diners, by the way, also the dinners, the dinners also feature
activities like yoga, arts and crafts, writing and cooking classes.
Everything's great.
Oay, you wanna see a bunch of people do yoga naked fun.
It sounds like there might be some other stuff going on.
I'm speculating, there's no reporting on that, but
it seems like there's more than just dinner happening here.
People come to these dinners for many different reasons, by the way.
So let's get to some of the testimonials.
Rosalina Villanueva who's 41 said that she wanted to connect with her body,
which changed after she gave birth to her first child last year.
And look if these dinners help with that.
Great, I just like to get to know my body when I'm not in front
of strangers, but that's just me.
Other people are different.
Stephanie, 35 said that she had just come back from doing
cacao tobacco and to temazcal ceremonies in Nicaragua.
Do I really need to read more of this like that's the perfect demo for these dinners.
Okay, but anyway, and wanted to keep that energy going.
I think nudity allows us to connect in a different way.
She said to strip.
Let's read the rest of that to strip away what the patriarchy has put on us.
>> [CROSSTALK] Drink at home, folks.
>> [LAUGH] Like uber sexuality or hypersexuality.
And each dinner does have a theme.
So for the last dinner in New York, the theme was embracing your inner rhythms for
individuals to connect with their menstrual cycles.
After an hour of mindful movement and breath work.
The women squeezed around a dining table covered in silk, dried flowers and
butt shaped water glasses because obviously, and discussed their periods.
Only one attendee was menstruating at the event
which everyone agreed was pretty remarkable.
Cool [LAUGH].
[LAUGH] I don't have strong feelings about this story other than cool.
I mean, if you're into it awesome, just.
>> [LAUGH] Everyone agreed was pretty remarkable.
Yeah, because of course everybody knows and you get a room full of women together,
one of them is bound to be on their period.
Everybody knows [LAUGH] that this is insanity.
It's literally insanity.
And again, sometimes I try to tell people I'm like, yo man, right wingers.
Sometimes they are right about the left or
progressives or they're not always wrong.
There's some of this stuff borders on lunacy.
>> No, but by the way, I don't necessarily see it as lunacy.
I see it as something that's not for me, it's for other people but namely people
who seem to be pretty well off and this is what they do with their free time, right?
Because I don't need to go to an overpriced dinner and it is pricey.
They don't have to go through the obstacles that men have to go through to
get to these dinners.
So women pay $88 to go to the dinner, right?
And men can only go if they've been referred by a woman
who has been attending the dinners.
So it's harder for guys to get in which I think given the nature of this whole
thing makes a lot of sense.
You want people to feel safe and comfortable being nude like that.
But the one thing I will say is the only experience I've ever had in life
where everyone's nude, you have to be nude.
You can't even wear a bathing suit is in the context of Korean spas in the women's
locker room in Korean spas.
And it's kind of incredible how quickly you're desensitized to nudity once
everyone around you is naked, right?
So you start feeling, I guess less.
I don't know if shame is the right word.
But yeah, to some extent, you start feeling less ashamed about certain
features of your body that you otherwise are like pretty insecure about.
So I do think that there's something to this.
I like it in the context of an all female environment.
These people are comfortable doing it in a co-ed environment and
all the power to them.
But the one serious point that I will make about this if you're struggling
day to day and your economic situation is unstable.
Last thing you're thinking about is exploring your body with a bunch of other
strangers.
>> Everybody knows this is some boujee crap.
Everybody knows this.
Normal people ain't doing this nonsense and
to your point about nudity is whatever.
I remember my first nude beach.
It was in Barcelona Spain.
>> Me too.
>> I remember being blown away.
At Barceloneta, yeah, that's right, y'all, I pronounced Barcelona that way.
I did the douche Barcelona pronunciation.
I say what can we say?
I remember seeing a bunch of topless women.
I was like, wow, this is great.
This is amazing.
And then I caught a glimpse of an older gentleman and his droopy ass nutsack.
And I was like, this is the trade off.
>> [CROSSTALK] This is the trade off.
No, but you know what was amazing to me about going to that beach,
same beach and experiencing that was no one cared, right?
Maybe no one cared like no one was making the women feel uncomfortable
because they were topless.
No one was staring at you like it was just everyone at that beach was
desensitized to nudity and it happens so
quickly once you're exposed to that kind of environment.
And I think that's an interesting thing to bring up in the context of all of this.
But hey, bunch of rich people wanna get together or well to do people.
I don't know if they're all rich, wanna get together well,
naked to have a fancy dinner.
Do you boo, I'm all for it.
Don't necessarily need to write up about it in the New York Times.
But nonetheless, this is it.