Too much to bare? Costly California nudist resort may have to 'go textile'

After nearly 90 years as a nudist resort, California's Lupin Lodge is up for sale, and its next owners are likely to require guests to wear clothes.

- Lois Beckett

The 112-acre Silicon Valley property became a retreat for members of the naturist movement in 1935. Today, its hundreds of members enjoy the resort's clothing-optional hiking trails, pickleball court and its nude-only community pool.

But the family-owned Los Gatos resort is now on sale for nearly $30m (£24m) - and any buyers of the northern California site are likely to abandon its naturist roots.

When Pauline Martin Moore, 83, heard the property was for sale, she said she "was absolutely aghast".

Moore, who was born in London and has been part of the club for decades, prizes it as a democratic social space, where markers of class and status drop away.

"You don't judge them by what they're wearing, because you can't, so you get to know people as they are," she said.

At the same time, Moore said, she was not entirely surprised at the news of the sale: the upkeep of the resort is no easy job, and its owner and CEO, Lori Kay Stout, has been managing it on her own since her husband died in 2015.