Zoot suit

thumb|Hispanic man in zoot suit

thumb|Man wearing a zoot suit 1942

A zoot suit (occasionally spelled zuit suit) 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.

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. 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. 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. The zoot suit became an important symbol of cultural pride and defiance of oppression in the Chicano Movement. It experienced a brief resurgence in the swing revival scene in the 1990s. The suit is still worn by Chicano in Mexican subcultures for memorialization events, regular celebrations, and special occasions.

History

Hepcats

The suits were first associated with African-Americans in communities such as Harlem, Chicago, and Detroit in the 1930s, Charles Klein and Vito Bagnato of New York City; Louis Lettes, a Memphis tailor; and Nathan (Toddy) Elkus, a Detroit retailer. 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. Jazz bandleader Cab Calloway frequently wore zoot suits on stage, including some with exaggerated details, such as extremely wide shoulders or overly draped jackets. 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."

Pachucos and Pachucas

left|thumb|upright|Frank Tellez, a [[Mexican Americans|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. The subculture emerged in El Paso, Texas, in the late 1930s and quickly spread to Los Angeles. Pachucos and Pachucas embraced this style that challenged white American norms around race and gender norms The Mexican American zoot suit style was usually black, sharkskin, charcoal gray, dark blue, or brown in color with pinstripes. 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. The zoot suits became framed as unpatriotic, referring to the excessiveness of cloth during wartime. 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. Almost all of those arrested as allegedly potential suspects were wearing zoot suits. The earliest youth who reclaimed the word Chicano as an identity of empowerment were in fact Pachucos.

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. 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.

Swing revival era

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. Bands included The Brian Setzer Orchestra, Royal Crown Revue, and Cherry Poppin' Daddies. 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. Outside of memorialization events, such as those held on the anniversary of the Zoot Suit Riots, It is also worn in certain urban areas in Mexico for similar purposes.

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 or saddle shoes.

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.

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. 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". 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.

Some observers claim that the "Edwardian-look" suits with velvet lapels worn by Teddy Boys in Britain are a derivative of the zoot suit.

References

External links

The Zoot Suit Riots . Article about the zoot suit riots of 1943.