Looking Back at Stylish '70s Cult, LA's the Source Family

Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for The Goods by Vox. You can also see what we’re up to by signing up here.

Welcome to Local Legends, in which Curbed LA, Eater LA, and Racked LA explore the properties, food and fashion of some of Los Angeles' most noteworthy figures. Today: the Source Family hippie cult of the late '60s and early '70s.

Grid View

Expand

• Count the Reformation-style dresses. [Still via Vimeo]
• Straight out of a Free People catalog. [Image via The Source Doc]
• Father Yod and his 13 wives, who apparently loved maxi dresses. [Image via Boston Globe]
• Maxi dresses were not limited to the women. [Image via Style Rookie]
• All white everything. [Image via BlackBook]
• More white on white action. [Image via Washington Post]
• The commune's experimental psychedelic rock band, Ya Ho Wa 13, also offered some interesting style. [Image via New York Times]

Our city has its share of local legends, but none were as simultaneously radical and fashionable as that of the Source Family. Led by controversial spiritual leader Father Yod, the mystical Aquarian tribe ruled Hollywood's Sunset Strip in the 1970s, preaching their sex- and drug-fueled "Eternal Now" religion while running a mega popular health food eatery and wearing glorious hippie garb that comprised of goddess gowns and rainbow robes.

Last week, LA's best eccentrics gathered at The Standard, Hollywood for a screening of The Source: A Documentary, which Los Angeles Times notes spawned a "white magic ceremony" in the parking lot of the cult's original restaurant across the street. Causing the same pandemonium as the Source's first reunion back in 2007, the event was filled with wildly styled fans of Yod's psychedelic vision.

Intrigued? Check out our gallery for some of the Source's most memorable looks, which have indirectly inspired labels like Stone Cold Fox, Reformation and Free People, and watch the new doc's NSFW trailer after the jump.

· The Source Documentary [Official Site]
· 'The Source Family' documentary draws an L.A. crowd [LA Times]
· The Source: LA's First Spiritual Vegetarian Restaurant [Eater]
· The Respectable LA Houses of 1970s Hippie Cult The Source [Curbed]
· '50s Mobster Mickey Cohen Liked Sharp Suits, Nice Hats, Killing [Racked]
· Remembering Bijan, Founder of "World's Most Expensive" Store [Racked]