Nude dining and yoga are the latest fads in the Big Apple!

New York, July 22 : The summer in New York is taking its toll on some city dwellers, who are shedding their clothes to go dining in the nude.

Apart from a few restaurants, even a few yoga studios and comedy clubs are going naked.

"We're just more comfortable nude," the New York Post quoted John Ordover, who rents city eateries for naked dinner parties, as saying.

"We're not out to shock or put on a public spectacle. We want only to do things that other people do in the way that we are most comfortable doing them. That, for us, is without clothes," he added.

At a Midtown studio called the Phoenix Temple, twice-weekly yoga classes are really encouraging participants to expose their inner selves.

"I had such a transformative experience on my own when I did yoga naked rather than clothed. I wanted to share that," said Naked Yoga NYC teacher Isis Phoenix.

The classes have about 10 devotees who have to obey two rules - leave your clothes behind, and bring your own mat.

"We are reclaiming and celebrating our bodies. The first 10 minutes of class for anyone who is new, there's always a sense of trepidation," said Phoenix. It dissolves very quickly," Phoenix said.

And at a Gotham comedy club, the sniggering isn't caused just by the punch lines.

"The first time I tried comedy naked, it was the best thing ever. It gives you a kind of vulnerability that puts the audience on your side straight away," said Andy Ofiesh, founder of the Naked Comedy Showcase.

That audience could also be in the same vulnerable state. Half the auditorium is reserved for people who enjoy laughing in the nude.

ANI