Zoot suit

{{Short description|Men's suit style of the 1940s}} {{Other uses|Zoot Suit (disambiguation)}} {{Use American English|date=April 2026}} {{Use mdy dates|date=April 2026}} thumb|Hispanic man in zoot suit thumb|Man wearing a zoot suit {{circa}} 1942

A '''zoot suit''' (occasionally spelled '''zuit suit'''<ref name="Calderin2013">{{Cite book |last=Calderin |first=Jay |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CTqaAAAAQBAJ |title=The Fashion Design Reference & Specification Book: Everything Fashion Designers Need to Know Every Day |publisher=Rockport Publishers |year=2013 |isbn=978-1-59253-850-8}}</ref>) is a men's suit with high-waisted, wide-legged, tight-cuffed, pegged trousers, and a long coat with wide lapels and wide padded shoulders. It is most notable for its use as a cultural symbol among the Hepcat and Pachuco subcultures. Originating among African Americans, it later became popular with Mexican, Filipino, Italian, and Japanese Americans in the 1940s.<ref name="Walker1992">{{Cite book |last=Walker |first=John |title=A Glossary of Art, Architecture and Design Since 1945 |publisher=G. K. Hall & Co. |year=1992 |isbn=9780853656395 |edition=3rd}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Maddan |first=Heather |date=April 29, 2007 |title=Zooting up / Brighten prom night with flash, dash – and panache |work=The San Francisco Chronicle |url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19990908192837/http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi|url-status=dead|archive-date=September 8, 1999}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=L.A. In the Zoot Suit Era :: Zoot Suit Discovery Guide |url=https://research.pomona.edu/zootsuit/en/zoot-suit-la/ |access-date=2021-07-31 |archive-date=2022-06-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220616105059/https://research.pomona.edu/zootsuit/en/zoot-suit-la/ |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://global.oup.com/us/companion.websites/9780199315468/student/ch7/wed/zoot/ | title=The Zoot Suit and Youth Culture }}</ref>

The zoot suit originated in African American comedy shows within the Chitlin' Circuit in the 1920s. Comedians such as Pigmeat Markham, Stepin Fetchit, and many others would dress in rags or in colorful baggy suits for their comedic routines. This style of oversized suits would later become a popular trend in the inner-city ghettos.

Many tap and Lindy hop dancers wore loose-fitting suits to the clubs and ballrooms. These suits made it much easier to navigate the dance floor while dancing. Jazz and Jump blues singers helped popularize the style in the 1930s and 40s. Cab Calloway called them "totally and truly American". The suits were worn mainly by African American men, including a young Malcolm X.<ref name=":2">{{cite book |last=Peiss |first=Kathy |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1ITTsyI6scQC&dq=zoot+suit+banned&pg=PA37 |title=Zoot Suit: The Enigmatic Career of an Extreme Style |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |year=2011 |isbn=9780812204599 |page=37}}</ref> During the rationing of World War II, they were criticized as a wasteful use of cloth, wool being rationed then. In 1942, the War Production Board issued restrictions aimed at stopping the sale of zoot suits.<ref name=":2" />

In the Zoot Suit Riots of 1943, groups of predominantly Mexican zoot suiters became victims of repeated racial mob violence.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Macias |first=Anthony F. |title=Mexican American mojo : popular music, dance, and urban culture in Los Angeles, 1935–1968 |date=2008 |publisher=Duke University Press |isbn=978-0-8223-8938-5 |location=Durham |pages=105–115 |oclc=308677458}}</ref> Wearing of the zoot suit was never banned, despite a debate of its prohibition by the Los Angeles City Council in the aftermath of the riots.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":0" /><ref name=":8">{{cite news |last=Orozco |first=Christian |date=2023-06-02 |title=Where and how the Zoot Suit Riots swept across L.A. |url=https://www.latimes.com/california/list/zoot-suit-riot-timeline-sleepy-lagoon-murder-trial |work=Los Angeles Times |access-date=2023-08-21 |quote=The council approves the resolution, but the ordinance never goes into effect. Instead, the council urges the War Production Board to take even further steps to curb the production of zoot suits.}}</ref> The zoot suit became an important symbol of cultural pride and defiance of oppression in the Chicano Movement.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sandoval |first=Denise M. |title=Black and Brown in Los Angeles: Beyond Conflict and Coalition |publisher=University of California Press |year=2013 |isbn=9780520956872 |editor-last=Kun |editor-first=Josh |location=Berkeley, California |pages=197 |chapter=The Politics of Low and Slow/Bajito y Suavecito: Black and Chicano Lowriders in Los Angeles, from the 1960s through the 1970s |editor-last2=Pulido |editor-first2=Laura}}</ref> It experienced a brief resurgence in the swing revival scene in the 1990s.<ref name=":4">{{Cite journal |last=Howard |first=Sarah Elizabeth |date=2010 |title=Zoot to boot: the zoot suit as both costume and symbol |journal=Studies in Latin American Popular Culture |volume=28 |pages=112–131 |doi=10.1353/sla.0.0004 |issn=0730-9139 |pmid=20836266|s2cid=30345366 }}</ref> The suit is still worn by Chicano in Mexican subcultures for memorialization events, regular celebrations, and special occasions.<ref name=":7">{{Cite web |title=78th Anniversary of LA's Zoot Suit Riots in Commerce |url=https://www.nbclosangeles.com/on-air/78th-anniversary-of-las-zoot-suit-riots-in-commerce/2611390/ |access-date=2023-01-18 |website=NBC Los Angeles |language=en-US}}</ref><ref name=":9">{{Cite web |last=Little |first=Emerson |date=2021-11-17 |title=Estrella Family Fashions Zoot Suits at El Pachuco|url=https://fullertonobserver.com/2021/11/17/estrella-family-fashions-zoot-suits-at-el-pachuco/ |access-date=2023-01-18 |website=fullertonobserver.com |language=en-US |quote=Some of the store’s busiest times of the year include Halloween and prom season.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Estefania |first=Rafael |title=Pachucos: The Latinx subculture that defied the US |language=en |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20230913-pachucos-the-latinx-subculture-that-defied-the-us |access-date=2023-09-14}}</ref>

== History ==

=== Hepcats === {{Main|Hipster (1940s subculture)}} The suits were first associated with African-Americans in communities such as Harlem,<ref name="smithmag">{{Cite web |last=Gregory |first=Alice |date=April 16, 2020 |title=A Brief History of the Zoot Suit |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/brief-history-zoot-suit-180958507/ |website=Smithsonian Magazine |language=en}}</ref> Chicago, and Detroit in the 1930s,<ref name="smithmag" /> but were made popular nationwide by Jazz and Jump blues musicians in the 1940s. According to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', the word "zoot" probably comes from African American Vernacular English and reduplication of suit. The origin of the zoot suit has been disputed throughout the years. Essentially, early versions of the Zoot suits were just oversized or baggy suits, frequently seen with loud colors. Over time, it became tailored to have its own distinctive look. There was no one designer in creating the zoot suits; however, many tailors have taken credit for the definitive style and capitalized on it. Harold C. Fox, a Chicago clothier and big-band trumpeter;<ref>{{Cite news |last=McG. Thomas |first=Robert |date=August 1, 1996 |title=Harold Fox, Who Took Credit For the Zoot Suit, Dies at 86 |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/08/01/arts/harold-fox-who-took-credit-for-the-zoot-suit-dies-at-86.html |access-date=September 11, 2012}}</ref> Charles Klein and Vito Bagnato of New York City;<ref name="DailyTelegram1943">{{Cite news |date=1943-06-28 |title=Clipping from The Daily Telegram |pages=8 |work=The Daily Telegram |location=Adrian, Michigan |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/2114689/the-daily-telegram/ |access-date=2022-04-06}}[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/2114689/the_daily_telegram/ Clipping from] ''The Daily Telegram'' (Adrian, Michigan), June 28, 1943, p. 8.</ref> Louis Lettes, a Memphis tailor;<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bird |first=Christiane |url=https://archive.org/details/dacapojazzbluesl0000bird |title=The Da Capo Jazz And Blues Lover's Guide To The U.S. |publisher=Da Capo Press |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-306-81034-3 |url-access=registration}}{{page needed|date=September 2012}}</ref> and Nathan (Toddy) Elkus, a Detroit retailer.<ref>{{Cite news |date=January 2, 1992 |title=Nathan Elkus, 89, Detroit retailer |work=Daily News Record |url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-11744525.html |url-status=dead |access-date=September 11, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140611111046/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-11744525.html |archive-date=June 11, 2014}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Elkus |first=Philip L. |date=August 4, 1996 |title=Zoot Suit Required Cutting and Cajoling |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/08/04/opinion/zoot-suit-required-cutting-and-cajoling.html |access-date=September 11, 2012}}</ref> Harold C. Fox has given inspirational credit to African American teenagers for the Zoot Suits. He was quoted as saying, "The zoot was not a costume or uniform from the world of entertainment. It came right off the street and out of the ghetto."

"A Zoot Suit (For My Sunday Gal)" was a 1942 song written by L. Wolfe Gilbert and Bob O'Brien.<ref name="Powell">{{Cite web |last=Powell |first=Azizi |date=2014-02-12 |title=Two Examples Of The 1942 Song "Zoot Suit (For My Sunday Gal)" |url=https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2014/02/two-examples-of-1942-song-zoot-suit-for.html |access-date=2022-04-06 |website=pancocojams}}</ref> Jazz bandleader Cab Calloway frequently wore zoot suits on stage, including some with exaggerated details, such as extremely wide shoulders or overly draped jackets.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Alvarez |first=Luis |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e6gwDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA92 |title=The Power of the Zoot: Youth Culture and Resistance During World War II |publisher=Univ. of California Press |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-520-26154-9 |pages=92–93 |language=en}}</ref> He wore one in the 1943 film ''Stormy Weather''. In his dictionary, ''Cab Calloway's Cat-ologue: A "Hepster's" Dictionary'' (1938), he called the zoot suit "the ultimate in clothes. The only totally and truly American civilian suit."<ref>{{Cite web |date=September 27, 2017 |title=Zoot Suit Riots |url=https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/zoot-suit-riots |website=History |language=en}}</ref>

=== Pachucos and Pachucas === {{Main|Pachuco|Pachucas}} [[File:A man arrested during the Zoot Suit Riots models a zoot suit and pancake hat in a Los Angeles County jail on June 9, 1943.jpg|left|thumb|upright|Frank Tellez, a Mexican American man, models a zoot suit while arrested during the Zoot Suit Riots (1943).]] Pachucos and Pachucas were early Chicano youth who participated in a subculture that fashioned zoot suits.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ramos |first=Lisa Y. |date=2010 |editor-last=Ramírez |editor-first=Catherine S. |title=She's Stylin': La Pachuca, Chicana Resistance, and the Politics of Representation |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40865459 |journal=Reviews in American History |volume=38 |issue=3 |pages=562–568 |doi=10.1353/rah.2010.0021 |issn=0048-7511 |jstor=40865459 |s2cid=143131289|url-access=subscription }}</ref> The subculture emerged in El Paso, Texas, in the late 1930s and quickly spread to Los Angeles.<ref name=":02">{{Cite book |last=Chàvez Candelaria |first=Cordelia |title=Encyclopedia of Latino Popular Culture: Volume 2 |publisher=Greenwood Press |year=2004 |isbn=9780313332111 |pages=610–11 |chapter=Pachucos}}</ref> Pachucos and Pachucas embraced this style that challenged white American norms around race and gender norms<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ramírez |first=Catherine Sue |title=The woman in the zoot suit : gender, nationalism, and the cultural politics of memory |date=2009 |publisher=Duke University Press |isbn=978-0-8223-4286-1 |location=Durham |oclc=272303247}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2020-09-17 |title=Zoot Suit Girls |url=https://americanhistory.si.edu/girlhood/fashion/zoot-suit-girls |access-date=2021-07-12 |website=National Museum of American History |language=en}}</ref> The Mexican American zoot suit style was usually black, sharkskin, charcoal gray, dark blue, or brown in color with pinstripes.<ref name=":0" /> African American styles usually incorporated brighter colors, thick chalk stripes, floppy hats, and long chains more often than Mexican Americans.<ref name=":0" /> Both Pachucos and Hepcats functioned on the margins in American society.<ref name=":0" /> Some Pachucos and Hepcats shared solidarity or respect for one another because of this.<ref name=":0" />

In the early 1940s, Pachucos were associated with violence and criminal behavior by the American media, which fueled anti-Mexican sentiment and especially negative views of the zoot suit style in Los Angeles.<ref name=":92">{{Cite book |last1=Perez McCluskey |first1=Cynthia |title=Latinos in a Changing Society |last2=Villaruel |first2=Francisco A. |publisher=Praegar Publishers |year=2007 |isbn=9780275962333 |pages=186–87 |chapter=Policing the Latino Community}}</ref> Pachucas, some of whom also wore the zoot suit, often with some modifications and additional accessories like dark lipstick, were seen as threatening to ideas of family stability and racial uplift, often shunned by their communities and the wider public.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Escobedo |first=Elizabeth Rachel |title=From coveralls to zoot suits: the lives of Mexican American women on the World War II home front |date=2013 |isbn=978-1-4696-0206-6 |location=Chapel Hill |pages=10–12 |oclc=841229543}}</ref> The zoot suits became framed as unpatriotic, referring to the excessiveness of cloth during wartime.<ref name=":1" /><ref name="Duchess">{{Cite web |title=War, Politics & Suits: The Zoot Suit |url=http://duchessclothier.com/blog/war-politics-suits-the-zoot-suit/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160219202651/http://duchessclothier.com/blog/war-politics-suits-the-zoot-suit/ |archive-date=2016-02-19 |access-date=2022-04-06 |website=Duchess Clothier}}</ref> In 1942, police from across Los Angeles arrested 600 Mexican Americans in the Sleepy Lagoon murder case, which involved the murder of José Gallardo Díaz at a party.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Zoot Suit Riots {{!}} American Experience |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/zoot/ |access-date=2023-01-17 |website=www.pbs.org |language=en}}</ref> Almost all of those arrested as allegedly potential suspects were wearing zoot suits.<ref name=":1" />

Media coverage before and after the case sensationalized and further fanned the flames of hostile anti-Mexican sentiments in the city and abroad.<ref name=":1" /> This made some Mexican Americans hesitant to wear the zoot suit, since they did not want to be viewed as criminals simply for their style of dress.<ref name=":0" /> Some Pachucos became affiliated with early gangs in Los Angeles and embraced their presumed-to-be criminal status with the zoot suit.<ref name=":0" /> Others wore the zoot suit, but refused to refer to themselves as 'zoot suiters.'<ref name=":0" /> Mexican Americans who rejected Pachucos and zoot suit attire became known as 'squares' who were said to believe in assimilation and racial uplift theory.<ref name=":0" /> [[File:Victims of the Zoot Suit Riots.jpg|thumb|Mexican American men were stripped of their zoot suits by U.S. servicemen in the Zoot Suit Riots. Despite being attacked, many were also arrested.<ref name=":92" />]] This tension exploded in 1943 in a series of anti-Mexican riots in Los Angeles that became termed the Zoot Suit Riots.<ref name=":92" /> For ten days, white U.S. servicemen cruised Mexican American neighborhoods searching for zoot suiters to attack.<ref name=":1" /> In some cases, youth as young as twelve were attacked and dragged out of establishments.<ref name=":1" /> Filipinos and Black zoot suiters were also targeted, such as a Black man who had his eye gouged out with a knife by "a crowd of whites."<ref name=":0" /> After being attacked, Mexican and Black zoot suiters rioted against white U.S. servicemen.<ref name=":0" /> On the fifth day of the riots, the zoot suiters repelled attackers in a coordinated effort.<ref name=":0" /> Busloads of police were brought in to rescue "the retreating servicemen," after which "dozens of Mexicans" were arrested.<ref name=":0" /> Military officials declared Los Angeles off limits to servicemen the next day.<ref name=":0" />

After hearing of the event, an article for the ''[[Pittsburgh Courier|Pittsburgh [PA] Courier]]'' warned that Black zoot suiters could be the next target for "the patriotic lawlessness of men in uniform" and stated that both "Los Angeles Negro and Mexican zoot suiters are closer together than they are to members of their own racial group."<ref name=":0" /> Norris J. Nelson, Los Angeles City Council member, proposed outlawing zoot suits, although this did not occur due to questions about its constitutionality.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":0" /><ref name=":8" />

Cesar Chavez sported zoot suit attire in his younger years, and the zoot suit became an important cultural symbol for the Chicano Movement.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bruns |first=Roger |title=Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers movement |date=c. 2011 |publisher=Greenwood |isbn=9780313386503 |oclc=846451052}}</ref> The earliest youth who reclaimed the word Chicano as an identity of empowerment were in fact Pachucos.<ref name=":36">{{Cite book |last=Macías |first=Anthony |title=Mexican American Mojo: Popular Music, Dance, and Urban Culture in Los Angeles, 1935–1968 |publisher=Duke University Press |year=2008 |isbn=9780822389385 |pages=9}}</ref>

=== White Americans === thumb|upright|left|Three men wearing zoot suits in 1946 Throughout the 1940s, white American views on the zoot suit varied. The jive talk of African American hepcats had spread among white middle class youth in the early 1940s.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last=Peiss |first=Kathy Lee |title=Zoot suit: the enigmatic career of an extreme style |date=2011 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |isbn=978-0-8122-4337-6 |location=Philadelphia |pages=96–101 |oclc=822890077}}</ref> This began to reduce stress on the origins of the zoot suit as a Black cultural symbol, which made it more acceptable to white Americans.<ref name=":3" /> Before the Zoot Suit Riots, the zoot suit was sometimes positioned as a symbol of American individualism and even patriotism in comparison to the fascist uniform attire and regimentation of Nazi Germany.<ref name=":3" /> White and Black soldiers were sometimes seen "zooting" their uniforms in war effort photos, with the press presenting the zoot suit as a symbol of youthful relatability rather than as an oppositional or unpatriotic symbol.<ref name=":3" /> Most of the visible tension surrounding the zoot suit before the riots was concentrated in the Los Angeles area regarding the spread of anti-Mexican sentiment among whites in the city.<ref name=":3" />

=== Trinidad === right|thumb|Calypso singers Zoot suits not only played a historical role in the subculture in the United States in the 1940s, but also shaped a new generation of men in Trinidad. These Trinidadian men who adopted this American fashion became referred to as the "saga boys"; they wore these suits and embraced the glamorous lifestyle that they represented. "Their fondness for the zoot suit, in particular signified a rejection of Anglo-centric precepts not only about fashion but, more profoundly, about manhood."<ref name=":5" />

Therefore, although the "saga boys" had the appearance of adapting to the urban American way of life, they were in fact using this clothing and lifestyle as a way to improve their lives in Trinidad, rise above the restrictions that imperialism brought, and create, through this oppositional dress, a culture of their own.<ref name=":5">{{Cite book |last=Neptune |first=Harvey R. |title=Caliban and the Yankees |date=2007 |publisher=The University of North Carolina Press |location=Chapel Hill |pages=105–128}}</ref>

=== Swing revival era === {{Main|Swing revival}} In the swing revival era, which started in 1989 and carried to about 1998, the zoot suit experienced a small resurgence mostly based in nostalgia of the 1940s era, yet notably missed many of the racial dynamics that surrounded the zoot suit.<ref name=":4" /><ref>{{Cite web |date=2016-05-16 |title=Let's All Remember The Late-'90s Swing Revival |url=https://www.stereogum.com/1851924/lets-all-remember-the-late-90s-swing-revival/columns/sounding-board/ |access-date=2023-01-17 |website=Stereogum |language=en}}</ref> Bands included The Brian Setzer Orchestra, Royal Crown Revue, and Cherry Poppin' Daddies.<ref name=":4" /> One of the popular songs of the era was the Cherry Poppin' Daddies' "Zoot Suit Riot", which presented the historical moment of the Zoot Suit Riots through a lens of masculine power.<ref name=":4" />

=== Contemporary === The zoot suit is regularly memorialized by the Chicano community today as a symbol of cultural pride.<ref name=":7" /><ref name=":6">{{Cite web |date=2021-06-07 |title=The Zoot Suit Riots Cruise brings back 'a forgotten era' |url=https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-06-07/the-zoot-suit-riots-cruise-hopes-to-remember-a-forgotten-era |access-date=2023-01-18 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Ruelas |first=Renee |title=Zoot Suit Pachanga celebrates culture, history |url=https://www.lcsun-news.com/story/news/local/2017/06/04/zoot-suit-pachanga-celebrates-culture-history/368565001/ |access-date=2023-01-18 |website=Las Cruces Sun-News |language=en-US}}</ref> Some of this is owed to Luis Valdez's 1979 play ''Zoot Suit'' and its subsequent 1981 film, which carried knowledge of the era and interest in the style forward.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Staff |first=Daily Chela |date=2021-05-23 |title=Lowrider Cruise To Commemorate Zoot Suit Riot Anniversary |url=https://www.dailychela.com/lowrider-cruise-to-commemorate-zoot-suit-riot-anniversary/ |access-date=2023-01-18 |website=The Daily Chela |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Bromwich |first=Jonah Engel |date=2017-03-30 |title=California Today: 'Zoot Suit' Memories |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/30/us/california-today-zoot-suit-memories.html |access-date=2023-01-18 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Outside of memorialization events, such as those held on the anniversary of the Zoot Suit Riots,<ref name=":6" /><ref name=":7" /> the zoot suit is still sometimes worn by Chicanos for special occasions, including proms, usually as a dual display of formal wear and cultural pride.<ref name=":9" /><ref>{{Cite web |last=Valenzuela |first=Eric |date=2010-03-23 |title=Zoot Suit Riot |url=https://latinolosangeles.com/zoot-suit-riot-8221 |access-date=2023-01-18 |website=Latino Los Ángeles |language=en-US |quote=They are still worn from time to time by pachucos and vatos who want to dress up. |archive-date=2023-01-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230118022227/https://latinolosangeles.com/zoot-suit-riot-8221 |url-status=dead }}</ref> It is also worn in certain urban areas in Mexico for similar purposes.<ref>{{Cite web |last=WW |first=FashionNetwork com |title=Mexico's 'pachucos' keep zoot suits, defiance alive |url=https://ww.fashionnetwork.com/news/Mexico-s-pachucos-keep-zoot-suits-defiance-alive,862470.html |access-date=2023-01-18 |website=FashionNetwork.com |language=en-WW}}</ref>

==Characteristics== Traditionally, zoot suits have been worn with a fedora or pork pie hat color-coordinated with the suit, occasionally with a long feather as decoration, and pointy, French-style shoes{{citation needed|date=September 2017}} or saddle shoes.<ref>{{Cite web |title=How to Rock a Zoot Suit: Tips and Tricks for a Stylish Look |url=https://www.contemposuits.com/blog/how-to-rock-a-zoot-suit-tips-and-tricks-for-a-stylish-look/?srsltid=AfmBOooH1CbmUiyQAVgCh5RFVxU0PSOergpqocaTw424YfOpoF9_HfQN |access-date=2025-03-28 |website=Contempo Suits |language=en}}</ref>

Zoot suits usually featured a watch chain dangling from the belt to the knee or below, then back to a side pocket. A woman accompanying a man wearing a zoot suit would commonly wear a flared skirt and a long coat.{{r|life1942092144}}

The amount of material and tailoring required made them luxury items, so much so that the U.S. War Production Board said that they wasted materials that should be devoted to the World War II war effort.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Rottman |first=Gordon L. |title=FUBAR: Soldier Slang of World War II |publisher=Botley |year=2007 |isbn=978-1-84603-176-2 |location=Oxford |page=117}}</ref> When ''Life'' published photographs of zoot suiters in 1942, the magazine joked that they were "solid arguments for lowering the Army draft age to include 18-year-olds".<ref name="life1942092144">{{Cite magazine |date=1942-09-21 |title=Zoot suits |pages=44 |magazine=Life |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oE4EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA44 |access-date=November 20, 2011}}</ref> This extravagance, which many considered unpatriotic in wartime, was a factor in the Zoot Suit Riots.

To some, wearing the oversized suit was a declaration of freedom and self-determination, even rebelliousness.<ref name="Osgerby">{{Cite encyclopedia |year=2008 |title=Understanding the 'Jackpot Market': Media, Marketing, and the Rise of the American Teenager |encyclopedia=The Changing Portrayal of Adolescents in the Media Since 1950 |publisher=Oxford University Press US |location=New York |url=https://archive.org/details/changingportraya0000jami/page/31 |last=Osgerby |first=Bill |editor-last=Patrick L. Jamieson & Daniel Romer |pages=[https://archive.org/details/changingportraya0000jami/page/31 31–32] |isbn=978-0-19-534295-6 |url-access=registration}}</ref><ref name="SevenSongs">{{Cite AV media |url=https://icarusfilms.com/if-malc |title=Icarus Films: Seven Songs for Malcolm X |date=1993-09-15 |access-date=2022-04-06 |website=icarusfilms.com}}</ref>

Some observers{{who|date=May 2019}} claim that the "Edwardian-look" suits with velvet lapels worn by Teddy Boys in Britain are a derivative of the zoot suit.<ref name="Mazón2010">{{Cite book |last=Mazón |first=Mauricio |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_BnUtMQhXZAC&pg=PA7 |title=The Zoot-Suit Riots: The Psychology of Symbolic Annihilation |date=2010 |publisher=University of Texas Press |isbn=9780292788213 |access-date=30 January 2016}}</ref>

== See also == {{Portal|United States|Latino and Hispanic American}} * ''{{annotated link|Zazou}}''

==References== {{Reflist}}

==Further reading== * Alvarez, Luis. ''The Power of the Zoot: Youth Culture and Resistance During World War II'' (University of California Press, 2008). * {{Cite journal |last=Cosgrove |first=Stuart |year=1984 |title=The Zoot-Suit and Style Warfare |url=http://invention.smithsonian.org/centerpieces/whole_cloth/u7sf/u7materials/cosgrove.html |url-status=dead |journal=History Workshop Journal |volume=18 |pages=77–91 |doi=10.1093/hwj/18.1.77 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140813123335/http://invention.smithsonian.org/centerpieces/whole_cloth/u7sf/u7materials/cosgrove.html |archive-date=2014-08-13|url-access=subscription }} Republished in: {{Cite book |last=Cosgrove |first=Stuart |title=Looking for America: The Visual Production of Nation and People |year=2005 |isbn=978-1-4051-1465-3 |editor-last=Cameron |editor-first=Ardis |pages=264–80 |chapter=The Zoot-Suit and Style Warfare |doi=10.1002/9780470774885.ch10}} * {{Cite journal |last1=Turner |first1=Ralph H. |last2=Surace |first2=Samuel J. |year=1956 |title=Zoot-Suiters and Mexicans: Symbols in Crowd Behavior |journal=American Journal of Sociology |volume=62 |issue=1 |pages=14–20 |doi=10.1086/221893 |jstor=2773799 |s2cid=143875170}} * {{Cite journal |last=Tyler |first=Bruce |year=1994 |title=Zoot-Suit Culture and the Black Press |journal=The Journal of American Culture |volume=17 |issue=2 |pages=21–33 |doi=10.1111/j.1542-734X.1994.00021.x}} * {{Cite journal |last=Alford |first=Holly |year=2004 |title=The Zoot Suit: Its History and Influence |journal=Fashion Theory |volume=8 |issue=2 |pages=225–36 |doi=10.2752/136270404778051807 |s2cid=194180401}} * {{Cite journal |last=del Castillo |first=Richard Griswold |year=2000 |title=The Los Angeles 'Zoot Suit Riots' Revisited: Mexican and Latin American Perspectives |journal=Mexican Studies |volume=16 |issue=2 |pages=367–91 |doi=10.1525/msem.2000.16.2.03a00080 |jstor=1052202}}

==External links== * [http://www.just-the-swing.com/his/zoot-suit-riots The Zoot Suit Riots] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091009184028/http://www.just-the-swing.com/his/zoot-suit-riots |date=2009-10-09 }}. Article about the zoot suit riots of 1943.

{{Chicano and Mexican American topics}} {{African American topics}} {{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zoot suit}} Category:1930s fashion Category:1940s fashion Category:Counterculture of the 1940s Category:1940s in the United States Category:Suits (clothing) Category:Jazz culture Category:African-American cultural history Category:Italian-American culture Category:Italian-American history Category:History of Mexican Americans Category:Mexican-American culture Category:Filipino-American culture Category:Japanese-American culture Category:Hipsters (1940s subculture)