de bene esse: Dress the Part: Get The Source Family's 70s Boho-Cult Chic Look

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

Photo: Courtesy of Isis Aquarian Archives

Looking like a mildly deranged, literally holier-than-thou Tom Wolfe, Father Yod (the former Jim Baker, the future Ya Ho Wha) wears an ivory suit, when he is not in white robes, as he swaggers around in 1970s Los Angeles, preaching his doctrine of health food, yoga, polygamy, and the sacred power of rock music to a bevy of beauties. These darling acolytes favor shimmering, pale high-waisted frocks, their slender necks entwined with gold pendants, their lovely heads topped with hippie headbands. The new documentary The Source Family tells the story of Father Yod and his followers, who coalesced around the legendary Sunset Strip organic vegetarian restaurant the Source, which, in its heyday, attracted people like Steve McQueen and John Lennon. (It is also the place where quintessential New Yorker Woody Allen chokes down his mashed yeast and alfalfa sprouts in Annie Hall.)

The gorgeous devotees, besotted with the messianic Yod (a successful restaurateur as well as, purportedly, a former murderer and bank robber) were not just serious about meditation—they were also greatly concerned with fashion, at least by the evidence of the film’s archival footage. In fact, style was a major player for both men and women in the family: In the film, one member reminisces that as Yod delved deeper into the philosophies of ancient civilizations, cult members would dress the part—sometimes as Native Americans, sometimes as Templars.

The most prevalent costumes—those long, floaty, almost bridal dresses and robes—were apparently meant to evoke the mythical (and in this viewer’s opinion at least, completely fictional), lost civilization of Atlantis. At one point, everyone troops down to City Hall to change his or her surname to Aquarian (some also elect the middle name The, leading to monikers like Magus the Aquarian).

But you don’t have to alter your name, practice Kundalini yoga at dawn, stare into the sun until you fry your eyeballs, or record psychedelic albums in your garage to appreciate the languor of a summery ankle-grazing frock, the subtle allure of a golden necklace, or the starry glory of a spectral tiara.

Here, Vogue.com’s guide to get the look of The Source Family: