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  • ISIS AQUARIAN ARCHIVES
In this week's Worn Out, Marti Jonjak takes a closer look at the fashion worn by the Source Family, "a 1970s California religious sect founded by the wildly charismatic Jim Baker," and interviews former member and photo archivists Isis Aquarian:

Men's plain-cut ankle-length tunics were constructed from giant pattern pieces formed by lying down and having the full body outline traced. The tunics were trimmed with mystical-symbol embroidery woven from their own long hair. Women dressed in low-cut gowns, "great for breast-feeding," and for a time, everyone wore white head wraps of homespun cotton, knotted at center front to protect the forehead's "third eye," a cosmic hotbed of astral realms, planets, glands, and gateways, explains Isis.

Intricate handmade belts and jewelry finished the ensembles, though when Father saw members "growing too attached to the Aquarian names" he'd given them, such as Sunflower, Galaxy, Electric, and Starwoman, he ordered the family to wear simple leather tag necklaces stamped with sacred numbers to call each other instead. "We quickly 'got it' and soon went back to using our names. Father was always coming up with ideas to help us overcome our egos."

The Source, a documentary about the Source Family, is screening June 8 and 10 at the Harvard Exit.

Read the whole column here.